TOKYO—Japan lodged a formal protest with the U.S. after police arrested a 20-year-old Marine on suspicion of robbery and murder following the death of a woman in Okinawa.
The alleged killing risks rekindling tensions over the presence of the U.S. military on the Japanese island, where crimes committed by American servicemen have been a source of anger for years.
Okinawan police said Devin Jacob Ballard is accused of killing Anna Yagi, 39, and stealing her wallet and backpack. Yagi was found dead Saturday at a hotel in the Okinawan capital of Naha.
Ballard is a lance-corporal with the Third Marine Expeditionary Force stationed on the island, according to a U.S. official. The police said Ballard denies the allegations. Ballard couldn’t be reached for comment, and it wasn’t clear whether he had legal representation.
On Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a message on her official account on X that officials have lodged a strong protest with the U.S. and demanded maximum cooperation with the investigation. “The occurrence of such an extremely brutal and heinous incident is a matter of profound regret,” Takaichi said.
U.S. Ambassador George Glass said he has discussed the matter with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Okinawa’s governor, Genta Koja. “We confirmed our policy of providing full cooperation with the investigation,” Glass said on X.
A spokesman for the Marine Corps said it is cooperating with Japanese authorities and takes the allegations very seriously.
There are around 30,000 U.S. military personnel on active duty on Okinawa, an island around 1,000 miles from Tokyo.
Resentment over the U.S. presence has been a feature of Okinawan life and politics for decades. Sporadic incidents of violence involving U.S. military personnel have stoked anger.
Koja’s recent victory in an election showed some of that hostility is fading as voters focus on pocketbook issues and Japan confronts new security challenges from China and Russia.
Koja, a member of Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, defeated incumbent Denny Tamaki, a stalwart of the movement opposed to the U.S. military presence on Okinawa.
“Although the prefecture has repeatedly called upon the U.S. military to prevent recurrences whenever incidents have occurred in the past, the fact that such an incident has happened again compels me to say that the U.S. military’s efforts to enforce discipline and train its personnel are failing completely,” Koja said Sunday following news of the arrest.
The U.S. has maintained bases on Okinawa since World War II. The island was only returned to Japan in 1972.
Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com
