In Japan, there is growing outrage following the violent death of a woman that police say is linked to a U.S. service member. A U.S. Marine based in Okinawa has been arrested for murder.
Japanese police in Okinawa say hotel video shows 20-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard walking in with a local woman who was later found strangled to death.
They say the video also shows him leaving the hotel by himself. Ballard has denied the allegations of murder.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi mentioned the case in her remarks to an opening session of parliament Monday, calling it a “heinous crime.”
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass wrote on social media Monday that he is “speaking with U.S. military commanders this week about how we continue to hold our American service members to the very highest levels of discipline and integrity.”
The Governor of Okinawa called the efforts to maintain discipline “completely ineffective.”
There's a grim history involving U.S. service members based in Okinawa.
The Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, says about 6,000 U.S. military personnel have been arrested in Japan since the United States returned Okinawa to the country in 1972, including more than 600 felony cases.
Okinawa prefectural police say the number of criminal cases related to U.S. military forces rose to 101 last year — up from 40 in 2020.
A little more than 50,000 U.S. military personnel are based in Japan, with roughly half of them in Okinawa.
