Japan protests alleged sex assault cases involving US military in Okinawa
Al Jazeera
Recent attacks occurred within months of each other, stoking local anger over the continued US military presence.
Japan has lodged a protest at the United States embassy in Tokyo over at least two alleged sexual assault cases involving American service members in the southern Japanese island of Okinawa that were only recently made public.
Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano met the US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, on Friday, requesting disciplinary and preventive measures over the two attacks, which occurred within months of each other in December and May.
“Criminal cases and accidents by US military personnel cause great anxiety to local residents, and they should never occur in the first place,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
Prosecutors in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, had earlier this month charged a 21-year-old US Marine Corps member with non-consensual sex and assault, allegedly committed in May, Hayashi said.
An Okinawa police spokesman said the woman had been “bitten in the mouth” and had taken two weeks to fully recover. Media reports said she had also been choked.
