NewzSuspect allegedly killed woman at hotel in Okinawa as prime minister calls crime ‘exceptionally brutal and vicious’A US marine stationed on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa is accused of murdering a Japanese woman and has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said on Sunday.The suspect allegedly “killed [a] 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet” as well as her backpack, local police told news media outlets. TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police arrested a U.S. Marine in the alleged robbery and murder of a woman on Okinawa, officials said Sunday, the latest criminal case on the southern island where the heavy American troop presence has remained a sensitive issue.
The Okinawa prefectural police said they arrested a 20-year-old Marine stationed at the Futenma Air Station on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old local woman at a hotel in Naha, Okinawa’s capital city, and taking her wallet and backpack in the early hours of Saturday. Kyodo News agency, citing the police, reported the woman’s body was found in her hotel room and she appeared to have been strangled to death. Police said security camera footage showed the man believed to be the suspect entering the hotel with the victim and coming out alone.
An officer arrested the suspect after spotting him walking alone on a street in Naha’s entertainment district late Saturday, Kyodo said. “The case deals a major shock and adds fear to the Okinawans who have already been forced to live next to U.S. “It is absolutely unforgivable and we are outraged.” “I must say, discipline and troop education are not working at all,” said Koja, referring to the U.S.
military’s measures taken in response to past criminal cases. troops are deployed in Japan under a bilateral security pact, about half of them on Okinawa, whose strategic role is seen as increasingly important for the Japan-U.S. military alliance amid growing tensions with China.
Japan’s southwestern shift in its military focus centers heavily on Okinawa and its nearby islands. Okinawans have long complained about noise, pollution and crime related to U.S. service members on Okinawa complicating ties between Japan’s central government and the Okinawa administration.
The latest case comes as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet pushes to further fortify its Japanese military presence on Okinawa and work more closely with the U.S. “The occurrence of the heinous crime is extremely regrettable,” Takaichi said in her message on X. She said her government has strongly protested to the U.S.
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