Japan Calls on US Forces to Strengthen Discipline After Okinawa Case
“Japan and the United States will work together to thoroughly prevent a recurrence,” Japan’s top government spokesman, Minoru Kihara, told reporters in Tokyo.
The call followed the arrest of US Marine Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, by Japanese authorities on Sunday. He is accused of robbing and killing a local woman in Okinawa, the southern Japanese prefecture that hosts the largest concentration of the roughly 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan under the bilateral defense treaty.
Police arrested Ballard a day after the alleged killing of 39-year-old Anna Yagi at a hotel in Naha, the prefectural capital, on Saturday.
Ballard was referred to prosecutors Monday but has denied the allegations.
The case triggered anger in Okinawa and elsewhere, prompting Japan’s foreign and defense ministries to summon the US ambassador and the commander of US Forces Japan.
Protests were also held outside the Okinawa prefectural government headquarters on Sunday, with around 100 people taking part.
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