Chief cupboard secretary Minoru Kihara informed reporters Monday that “the federal government will work with america to completely make sure that there will probably be no recurrence, and scale back burdens on native residents”.
Information of the soldier’s arrest instantly prompted Japan’s international affairs and defence ministers to summon senior American officers to convey their “excessive disappointment” and “lodge sturdy protests”, Kihara added.
The incident got here just some weeks after Okinawa elected Genta Koja as its new governor, ending the eight-year rule by his predecessor who had lengthy pushed for a significant US army base to be moved off the island.
Koja, 42, accepts a central authorities plan to maintain the US Marine Corps’ Futenma air base on Okinawa’s foremost island, however to maneuver it to a much less populated location.
Calling the robbery-murder “extraordinarily malicious in nature”, Koja informed reporters Sunday it “massively shocked residents right here who’re compelled to reside aspect by aspect with the bases, and instilled new worry in them”.
“I’m infuriated,” the governor stated.
He stated the incident confirmed US efforts to “educate troopers and enhance their behaviour haven’t been functioning in any respect”, including he’ll “quickly” journey to Tokyo to lodge a protest with prime authorities officers together with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Final 12 months, a Japanese court docket sentenced a US Marine accused of choking and trying to rape a lady in her 20s to seven years in jail.
In 2017, a former US Marine and civilian army base employee was sentenced to life in jail for the rape and homicide of a neighborhood lady in Okinawa.
