Japanese authorities said they arrested a U.S. Marine in Okinawa early Sunday after he was accused of killing a woman on the island.
Local police said they took Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, into custody around 1 a.m. Sunday in Naha, the capital city of the prefecture.
The servicemember allegedly killed victim Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel and then stole her wallet and backpack, police said.
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Authorities said Cpl. Ballard, who is stationed at the Futenma Air Station on the island, remains behind bars.
The American serviceman has denied the allegations that he killed Ms. Yagi.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed her sympathies for the victim’s family, while also fuming about the homicide in a social media post.
“The occurrence of such an extremely brutal and heinous incident is a matter of profound regret, and as the Government of Japan, we have lodged a strong protest with the U.S. side, while firmly demanding maximum cooperation with the investigation, strict discipline among U.S. military personnel, and thorough measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and accidents,” she wrote on X early Sunday.
Japan’s Minister of Defense, Shinjiro Koizumi, also called the killing “brutal and heinous” in his own statement.
The Marine Corps and the U.S. Embassy said they are working with Japanese police following Cpl. Ballard’s arrest.
“We are actively cooperating with Japanese authorities, in response to allegations of serious criminal actions by a Marine assigned to the III Marine Expeditionary Force,” the Okinawa-based Marine command wrote on X. “The Marine Corps takes these allegations very seriously and expects every Marine to adhere to the highest standards of behavior.”
The relationship between Okinawans and the U.S. military has been marked by decades of residents’ frustrations over noise, pollution, safety hazards and sovereignty infractions, but crime incidents involving the 25,000 American servicemen on the island have proven particularly incendiary.
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