The killing of a woman sparks anger against American forces in Japan

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Japan submitted a strong protest to the United States, on Sunday, after a US Marine was arrested on suspicion of killing and robbing a Japanese woman on the island of Okinawa, in an incident that brings to the fore a history of crimes and incidents linked to US forces on the island.

According to Reuters, police said that Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, is suspected of killing Japanese Anna Yagi, 39, inside a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, on Saturday, before seizing her purse and bag.

Ballard denied the accusations, according to police, while investigations are still ongoing.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that the occurrence of an incident “of such brutality and cruelty is extremely unfortunate,” stressing that the Japanese government had lodged a strong protest with the American side, and demanded the utmost cooperation with the investigation, tightening discipline, and taking measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said, according to the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), that the incident was “unacceptable,” expressing his extreme anger.

Agence France-Presse, citing Japanese media and sources in the investigation, revealed additional details about the hours that preceded the arrest.

According to NHK, surveillance camera recordings near the crime site showed a foreign man entering one of the rooms accompanied by a woman, before he later appeared leaving carrying her belongings.

The police then found a 20-year-old American soldier whose description matched the person shown in the recordings, and asked him to voluntarily accompany them to a police station, where he was arrested.

The US Marine Corps confirmed that Ballard is serving in the Third Marine Expeditionary Force and is stationed at the Futenma Marine Air Base in Okinawa, and that he is in the custody of the Japanese authorities.

The Marine Corps said in a statement, according to Reuters, that they take the accusations “very seriously,” and that every Marine is required to adhere to the highest standards of conduct.

The US Ambassador to Japan, George Glass, also offered his condolences and said that he spoke with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Governor of Okinawa, pledging full cooperation with the investigation.

The sensitivity of the case is not limited to the details of the crime itself. Okinawa hosts the bulk of the approximately 18,000 US Marines present in Japan, according to Reuters, while Agence France-Presse indicates the presence of about 54,000 US military personnel in total in Japan, a large number of whom are concentrated on the South Island.

Okinawa remained under American administration from the end of World War II until it was returned to Japan in 1972. Since then, the American military presence has raised repeated objections among the population, not only because of noise and accidents associated with aircraft and bases, but also because of crimes committed by military personnel.

One of the most influential incidents was in 1995, when three American soldiers raped a 12-year-old girl from Okinawa, a crime that sparked widespread popular protests and consolidated local opposition to the American military presence.

According to Agence France-Presse, a Japanese court last year sentenced a US Marine to seven years in prison after he was accused of strangling a woman in her twenties and attempting to rape her.

In another case dating back to 2017, a former Marine who worked as a civilian employee at a US military base was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of raping and killing an Okinawa woman.

In the same year, American forces in Japan imposed a ban on their personnel consuming alcohol after an accident caused by a drunk Marine, when his vehicle collided with a small truck, killing its 61-year-old Japanese driver, according to Agence France-Presse.

The new crime comes at a sensitive time for Tokyo. According to Reuters, the issue may further complicate the Takaichi government's efforts to transfer part of the Marine forces from the crowded Futenma base to a more isolated facility in Henoko, inside Okinawa.

Activists and local residents oppose this solution, as they demand the transfer of American forces outside the governorate instead of redistributing them within the island.

In contrast, Tokyo and Washington view Okinawa as a very important strategic location. The island is located approximately 100 kilometers from Taiwan at its closest point, which gives the American bases deployed there great military importance within the American and Japanese strategy in East Asia, according to Reuters.

Thus, the repercussions of Anna Yagi's murder go beyond the ongoing criminal investigation. The issue once again opens a very sensitive file in Japanese-American relations: how to balance the strategic importance of the American bases in Okinawa and the accumulated local anger over the behavior of some members of the forces stationed there.

With Takaichi's government calling on Washington for "maximum cooperation" and tightening discipline, attention will remain on the results of the investigation, while the arrested American soldier denies the accusations against him.