Japan leader voices outrage over alleged murder by US Marine

TOKYO: A woman's murder allegedly committed by a US Marine is a "heinous crime", Japan's premier said on Monday (Oct 5), as the new accusation of violence involving American forces sparked public outrage.

Crimes including rapes, assaults, hit-and-run and drunk-driving accidents by US personnel have long sparked protests on the island, which bears a disproportionate burden of hosting about 70 per cent of US military facilities in Japan.

The new case involves a US Marine stationed on the southern island of Okinawa who was arrested on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in the city of Naha and stealing her wallet, police said Sunday.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told lawmakers that the government has lodged a strong protest with the US, urging their "full cooperation with the investigation" and "strict discipline among US military personnel".

"The occurrence of such a heinous crime is extremely regrettable," Takaichi said.

Around 100 people participated in a rally in Naha on Sunday, holding up placards stating their "strong protest" against the murder, local media reported.

Chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Monday that "the government will work with the United States to thoroughly make sure there will be no recurrence, and reduce burdens on local residents".

News of the soldier's arrest immediately prompted Japan's foreign affairs and defence ministers to summon senior American officials to convey their "extreme disappointment" and "lodge strong protests", Kihara added.

The incident came just a few weeks after Okinawa elected Genta Koja as its new governor, ending the eight-year rule by his predecessor who had long pushed for a major US military base to be moved off the island.

Koja, 42, accepts a central government plan to keep the US Marine Corps' Futenma air base on Okinawa's main island, but to move it to a less populated location.

Calling the robbery-murder "extremely malicious in nature", Koja told reporters Sunday it "hugely shocked residents here who are forced to live side by side with the bases, and instilled new fear in them".

"I am infuriated," the governor said.

He said the incident showed US efforts to "educate soldiers and improve their behaviour have not been functioning at all", adding he will "soon" travel to Tokyo to lodge a protest with top government officials including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Last year, a Japanese court sentenced a US Marine accused of choking and attempting to rape a woman in her 20s to seven years in prison.

In 2017, a former US Marine and civilian military base worker was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a local woman in Okinawa.