Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2024 July 3 - 9 [US FORCES]

US marine in Okinawa arrested for touching breasts of woman

A U.S. Marine Corps serviceman in Okinawa was arrested on the spot for touching the breasts of a woman in her 20s on July 4.

The incident occurred despite the fact that the Okinawa prefectural government was demanding stricter discipline from the U.S. military and the Japanese and U.S. governments in response to a string of sexual crimes recently committed by US. soldiers in Okinawa.

Okinawa Governor Tamaki Denny on July 5 at a regular press conference in the prefectural government office said in anger, “The situation is very grave. I am furious at the repeated U.S. crimes,” adding that he will alert Okinawans to avoid incidents involving U.S. military personnel.

The Okinawa-elected opposition party Dietmembers’ group “Urizun no Kai” lodged a protest with the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying, “The situation is testing the patience of Okinawans.”

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Akamine Seiken at the MOFA office recalled that on the day U.S. troops landed in Okinawa in 1945, sexual assaults of locals, including rapes, by U.S. soldiers occurred. He pointed out that crimes and accidents involving U.S. soldiers will not cease as long as U.S. military bases exist in Okinawa.

Akamine criticized the MOFA for having failed to report to local authorities the sexual assault of a underaged girl by a U.S. airman last December though it had protested the incident to the U.S. side. He said, “It is as if the Japanese government has buried the case, and I find it unforgivable.”