A U.S. serviceman committed an act of sexual assault against a Japanese woman at a U.S. military base in Okinawa Prefecture, Kyodo news agency reported.
On Wednesday, it became known that on April 7, Okinawa police sent the case to the prosecutor’s office.
According to the agency’s sources in the investigative authorities, the incident occurred in March. A U.S. Marine attacked an employee of the base in a restroom, and beat another woman who tried to come to her aid. The U.S. side went along with Japanese law enforcement authorities and allowed investigative actions to be conducted on the base. Since under the bilateral agreement, the American serviceman cannot be handed over to the Japanese police, he remained under American command, but the American side agreed to let him answer questions from the police.
Okinawa Prefectural Governor Danny Tamaki expressed his deep regret and demanded that the U.S. command “carry out effective measures to prevent something like this.”
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass said he would take “measures for non-repetition of such actions, which could plunge into crisis relations between the U.S. and Japan”.
It also became known that on April 7, documents were sent to the prosecutor’s office in relation to another U.S. military officer who raped his acquaintance in Okinawa in January. However, in this case, due to the incomplete evidence base, it is unknown whether a criminal case will be opened.
Since June 2024, three cases of sexual violence committed by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa have been prosecuted. In two of them, the Okinawan authorities were not informed in a timely manner, which caused a great public outcry.