A woman’s murder allegedly committed by a U.S. Marine in Okinawa is a “heinous crime,” Japan’s premier said on Monday, as the new accusation of violence involving American forces sparked public outrage.
Crimes including rapes, assaults, hit-and-run and drunk-driving incidents by U.S. personnel have long sparked protests on the island, which bears a disproportionate burden of hosting about 70% of U.S. military facilities in Japan.
The new case involves Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old U.S. Marine stationed at Futenma Air Station in Okinawa, who was arrested on suspicion of killing 39-year-old Anna Yagi at a hotel in the island’s capital city of Naha early Saturday and stealing her wallet and backpack. He has denied the allegations, according to Japanese media.
Public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media outlets, citing investigation sources, reported that CCTV footage from near the scene showed a foreign man entering a room with a woman and later leaving with her belongings.
A patrolling police officer then found a 20-year-old man, later identified as Ballard, who matched the description of the suspect seen in the footage in an entertainment district in Okinawa City, about 15 miles northeast of Naha. The officer asked him to accompany them voluntarily to a local police station, where he was arrested, NHK reported.
His shaved head and the tattoos on his arms matched those of the man in security footage, Kyodo news agency reported.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told lawmakers the government has lodged a strong protest with the United States, urging its “full cooperation with the investigation” and “strict discipline among U.S. military personnel.”
“The occurrence of such a heinous crime is extremely regrettable,” Takaichi said.
Emotions run high
Around 100 people participated in a rally in Naha on Sunday, holding up placards stating their “strong protest” against the murder, Japanese media reported.
Okinawa native Sorane Sakihama, 24, who organized a similar rally in Tokyo on Sunday, said she cried upon learning about the woman’s death.
“We couldn’t protect her. That made me so angry and sad,” the university student told AFP, adding that she was planning to organize another protest in front of the U.S. Embassy for Tuesday evening.
“I want to ask them — what are these soldiers stationed here for? They might say they are here to protect lives or boost security. But how can they say that when a life was taken by their own?”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters on Monday that “the government will work with the United States to thoroughly make sure there will be no recurrence, and reduce burdens on local residents.”
News of the Marine’s arrest immediately prompted Japan’s foreign affairs and defense ministers to summon senior U.S. officials to convey their “extreme disappointment” and “lodge strong protests,” Kihara said.
The incident came just a few weeks after Okinawa elected Genta Koja as its new governor, ending the eight-year rule of his predecessor, who had long pushed for a major U.S. military base to be moved off the island.
Koja, 42, accepts a central government plan to keep the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air base on Okinawa’s main island, but to move it to a less populated location.
Calling the murder-robbery “extremely malicious in nature,” Koja told reporters on Sunday it had “hugely shocked residents here who are forced to live side-by-side with the bases, and instilled new fear in them.”
“I am infuriated,” Koja said.
He said the incident showed U.S. efforts to “educate soldiers and improve their behavior have not been functioning at all.”
Koja said he will travel to Tokyo “soon” to lodge a protest with top government officials, including Takaichi.
On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass said on social media that he is telling U.S. military commanders this week they need “to hold our American service members to the very highest levels of discipline and integrity.” He also said that he and Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force, discussed the “next steps in strengthening that bond of trust with our Japanese partners and base-hosting communities.”
Okinawa was under U.S. occupation from World War II until 1972. Today it hosts 70% of America’s military facilities and most of the 50,000 U.S. troops based in Japan.
There has been anger over increasing crime linked to the U.S. military on the island. The number of U.S. military-related criminal cases rose to 101 last year from about 40 in 2020, according to prefectural police.
A Japanese court sentenced a U.S. Marine accused of choking and attempting to rape a woman in her 20s to seven years in prison last year.
In 2017, a former U.S. Marine and civilian military base worker was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a local woman in Okinawa.
Under a bilateral status of forces agreement, the case is being handled by the Japanese authorities because the suspect was not on duty and was arrested off base.
Japanese prosecutors started examining the suspect’s case on Monday to determine whether to press formal charges in the coming weeks.
If convicted, he could face life in prison or the death penalty.
