Tag: Okinawa

We know this is all political theater, but the Japanese politicians are all showing who is more outraged after the murder of a Japanese woman on Okinawa:

In this screenshot from security footage, a woman who appears to be Anna Yagi walks in front of the Tesio sausage shop in Okinawa city, Okinawa, Oct. 2, 2026. (Tesio)

Japan’s prime minister criticized the U.S. military response to a Marine’s arrest in an Okinawa homicide investigation Tuesday, calling a monthlong overnight curfew for American troops inadequate. Sanae Takaichi questioned whether the midnight-to-5 a.m. restriction would prevent further incidents after Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was arrested Oct. 4 on suspicion of killing and robbing a Japanese woman at a Naha hotel.

She made the remarks during a House of Representatives budget committee meeting in reply to Okinawa lawmaker Masahisa Miyazaki, who challenged the effectiveness of the U.S. response. “I question how banning outings during the time people are asleep actually fosters reflection or leads to realistic measures to prevent a recurrence,” Miyazaki said, according to a livestream of the meeting on the assembly’s website. Takaichi said she considered the measure “insufficient” after reviewing it in her office.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but on top of the curfew the Okinawa politicians want action taken against the Marine’s supervisors:

The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly passed a resolution and statement Friday calling on the U.S. military and Japanese governments to apologize to Yagi’s family, provide compensation and revise the status of forces agreement governing U.S. military personnel in Japan. The documents also seek “disciplinary action against those with supervisory responsibility.”

This is a ridiculous request because I have seen plenty of great NCOs and officers have Soldiers screw up and do something criminal. Personnel sometimes do criminal things and they should be held accountable for it, not people that had nothing to do with it. Now if a unit shows a consistent trend of indiscipline then that unit’s leadership is held accountable by being relieved of duty which most times ends their careers. This is something I have seen happen before. Does this Marine’s unit have a long indiscipline problem? I don’t know, but I am sure the leadership in USFJ is closely looking at it and will take action if warranted.

With that all said, if the Okinawa politicians want to play this game, then who should be held accountable for all the murders on Okinawa not committed by U.S. military personnel? The last murder on Okinawa committed on Okinawa by a U.S. servicemember was a 2019 murder suicide. That means there two murders committed by a U.S. servicemember in 7 years.

According to ChatGPT there was 13 total murders on Okinawa in 2025 and the island typically averages about 15 a year. Presumably, the vast majority of these murders are committed by Japanese. The facts show that someone on Okinawa is far more likely to be murdered by a Japanese person than a U.S. servicemember. Because of this fact, is the Okinawa legislator going to demand that all these Japanese who are parents of a criminal be brought up on charges as well? Better yet maybe they should also go after the mangers of whatever business the criminal worked at?

The U.S. Marine Corps leadership on Okinawa is practicing the typical playbook in response to criminal acts happening on the island by implementing a curfew:

U.S. service members on Okinawa will not be prohibited from drinking alcohol during a monthlong overnight curfew that begins Friday, according to the Marine Corps. “Standard off-duty regulations and responsible-use policies will remain in effect outside of curfew hours,” III Marine Expeditionary Force spokesman 1st Lt. Tyler Thomas told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday. The update follows a Tuesday order by III MEF’s commander, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, imposing a 48-hour “Period of Training” that prohibited alcohol consumption, even in private residences, and barred troops from off-base liberty. The subsequent 30-day “Period of Reflection” requires all U.S. service members on Okinawa to remain in their assigned quarters on base or at their off-base homes between midnight and 5 a.m.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The major GI crimes in Japan always seem to happen on Okinawa. A 20-year old Marine has allegedly brutally murdered a 39 year old Japanese woman::

A U.S. service member was arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery after a Japanese woman’s body was discovered in a hotel in Okinawa, local officials said, describing the alleged killing as a “heinous” incident that prompted the Japanese government to lodge a protest with the United States.

Shinjiro Koizumi, the Japanese minister of defense, said a U.S. Marine lance corporal was arrested on Sunday after the woman’s body was found early on Saturday in Naha, the capital city of the Okinawa prefecture.

GMA

You can read more at the link.

This is a big loss for China who has long supported the outgoing governor Denny Tamaki and a huge win for Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi:

Genta Koja, the candidate backed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling coalition, is set to win Sunday’s Okinawa gubernatorial election, defeating incumbent Denny Tamaki, Kyodo News projections showed.

A win for Koja would provide a tailwind for Takaichi’s government as it pushes for the contentious relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan to the coastal Henoko area in Nago within the southern island prefecture.

Koja, 42, a former deputy Naha mayor and central government bureaucrat, will be the first Okinawa governor in 12 years to accept the relocation plan.

He is set to be the first Okinawa governor born after 1972, the year when the island was returned to Japan, having been under U.S. control since Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945.

Mainichi

You can read more at the link, but Koja’s election win shows how popular Takaichi is in Japan that even Okinawa now strongly backs her. This is significant because China has been trying to foment popular dissent against the relocation of U.S. Marines on Okinawa. With the Tamaki gone the base relocation plan will now face no political opposition on Okinawa.

What else will not face political opposition is the deployment of Japanese Self Defense Forces to the islands southwest of Okinawa that the Governor is also responsible for. These forces were deployed to the islands in response to increasing Chinese and even Russian naval, air, and missile activities around the islands.

Once again, Chinese threats against Japan are being answered by its voters choosing stronger security over appeasement. You would think China would have learned by now that the more belligerent it is toward Japan, the more it will choose leaders who are strong on security. However, President Emperor Xi and his underlings just cannot help themselves because anti-Japanese sentiment is a core value of the CCP since it is an effective way to distract their internal population from domestic issues when needed.

I will be surprised if the Japanese court believes this defense. If this holds up every rapist will be claiming they were sleepwalking to justify their crimes:

A U.S. Marine accused of sexually assaulting a Japanese woman and injuring another will rely on a defense of insanity due to a sleep disorder when his case comes to trial in June, his attorney said Wednesday. Pfc. Austin Wedington, 28, of California, should not be held responsible for an incident prosecutors allege occurred on March 18, 2025, according to a Feb. 12 filing by attorney Tetsu Amakata in Naha District Court.

Amakata’s pleading was partially read in court by Presiding Judge Tomohiko Shinomiya on Wednesday. The defendant was showing symptoms of parasomnia and was in a state of insanity during every act he is accused of in the indictment, according to Amakata’s filing. Parasomnia is an umbrella term for disruptive sleep disorders that include sleepwalking, sleep terrors, sleep talking and sleep paralysis, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Article 39 of Japan’s penal code states that “actions due to insanity are not subject to punishment.” Wedington pleaded not guilty Nov. 18 to forcible sexual intercourse and guilty to injuring the second woman before a three-judge panel presided over by Judge Kazuhiko Obata.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully the military police will not be body slamming civilians this New Year’s while on duty:

U.S. military police plan to resume their own street patrols on Okinawa in time for the New Year’s holiday, a month after a U.S. civilian was body slammed outside a bar, according to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  U.S. patrols, unaccompanied by local police, may be back in Okinawa’s nightlife districts on the final days of 2025, according to a statement by the U.S.-Japan Joint Committee posted on the ministry’s website Friday.

Stars and Stripes could not verify Saturday that patrols had already begun. USFJ commander Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost ordered the patrols paused and an investigation into the forceful detainment of Kareem El early on Nov. 22 by a U.S. military policeman who lifted El and slammed him to the pavement outside a bar on Gate 2 Street.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The American tourist was a former Marine Captain visiting Okinawa who was out past curfew which the military police had no jurisdiction over. The civilian could have defused the situation by showing his ID as requested, but when he refused the MP should not have body slammed him. I wonder if an assault charge could be filed with the Japanese police?:

Two Okinawa government officials urged caution amid a review of street patrols by U.S. military police in nightlife districts following a viral video of a U.S. civilian’s violent arrest. Two videos totaling four minutes show what appears to be a U.S. military police officer body slamming a man in civilian clothes onto the sidewalk along Gate 2 Street in Okinawa city outside Kadena Air Base early on Nov. 23. A patrol consisting only of U.S. military police stopped the civilian outside a bar in Okinawa city, according to U.S. Forces Japan spokesman Air Force Col. John Severns by email Wednesday. The civilian was not connected with the U.S. military, he said.

USFJ commander Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost ordered unilateral patrols by the U.S. military paused while an investigation of the incident takes place, Severns said. In neighboring Chatan town, Mayor Masashi Toguchi told reporters Thursday that “mistaken detentions like this should never happen, and we strongly urge a careful response,” a town spokesman said by phone Friday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but what is even more concerning is that this MP was saying they can detain Japanese civilians if they wanted to. Clearly some retraining needs to happen. You would think simple things like who you can and cannot detain or body slam would have been clearly understood before sending these MPs out on patrol.

I am not sure why servicemembers are struggling to pay rent or buy food when they have not missed a paycheck yet unlike their government civilian counterparts:

Visits to food pantries on U.S. military bases in Japan climbed in October during the federal government shutdown, according to an informal survey by Stars and Stripes. The Neighborhood Pantry at the Marine Corps’ Camps Foster and Kinser on Okinawa saw a steady rise in visits, said Angie Tomlin, the community support coordinator for both locations.

About 160 people visited the pantries in October, up from 146 in September and 122 in August, she said Tuesday at the Foster pantry. “We just hope this doesn’t last too long, because I feel like our island resources are going to run out at some point,” she said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Should schools being helping students to organize protests especially during school time?:

More than 60 high school students staged a walkout here Friday to protest Pentagon policies affecting diversity initiatives, the third such demonstration at a Defense Department school since Feb. 11.

The Kadena High School students — children of airmen and DOD employees — walked out at 10 a.m. for a 15-minute protest in front of the school, principal James Bleeker wrote in a letter emailed to parents that afternoon. Stars and Stripes counted at least 80 students in photos taken from about 250 feet away. Sophomore Elliot Field organized the walkout with support from the DODEA Student Advocacy Core Team, which also backed a Feb. 21 protest at Nile C. Kinnick High School on Yokosuka Naval Base, she said by email Wednesday. She took inspiration from that protest, where about 150 students walked out.

“It’s kind of frightening because I’ve never done anything like this before,” she told Stars and Stripes outside the school before the walkout. “I’ve always sort of been like, if something needs to get done, why not just do it? Something needed to happen.” Field said she coordinated the protest with Bleeker. Miranda Ferguson, a spokeswoman for Department of Defense Education Activity-Pacific, confirmed in an email Friday that the demonstration was organized with school administrators.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but would these same DODEA administrators allow students to organize a MAGA protest, an anti-abortion protest, a border security protest, etc.? Where is line for organized protests during school hours?