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By Linda Sieg
Feb 10, 2008
TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine was arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl in the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, police said on Monday, an incident that could strain ties between the two security allies.
A spokesman for the Okinawa Prefecture police said the 38-year-old Marine, based at Camp Courtney on the island, was suspected of raping the schoolgirl on Sunday and that the two were in a car at the time.
Further details were under investigation, he added.
Kyodo news agency, quoting police, said the marine had denied raping the girl, saying he had only got on top of her and kissed her.
Japan is home to some 50,000 U.S. troops, the bulk of them in Okinawa, where many residents have long resented bearing what they see as an unfair burden for maintaining the U.S.-Japan security alliance, a pillar of Japan's post-war diplomacy.
"If this is a crime committed by a member of the U.S. military, it is extremely regrettable and we urge you to maintain strict discipline and prevent a recurrence," a Foreign Ministry statement quoted a ministry official as telling a diplomat at the U.S. embassy.
The U.S. Marine Corps in Japan said in an e-mailed statement that it was fully cooperating with the Okinawa police.
"The Marine Corps takes this allegation very seriously," the statement said.
U.S. military bases in Japan have long caused complaints from local residents about crime, noise and accidents and in 1995, the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen sparked huge protests in Okinawa.
U.S. military officials were not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Japan said he was aware that an incident was under investigation.
"We really don't have enough facts to draw any conclusions," the spokesman added.
The incident comes as Japan's government tries to persuade Okinawa residents to accept a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station from the densely populated central Okinawa city of Ginowan to the coastal city of Nago.
Feb 10, 2008
TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine was arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl in the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, police said on Monday, an incident that could strain ties between the two security allies.
A spokesman for the Okinawa Prefecture police said the 38-year-old Marine, based at Camp Courtney on the island, was suspected of raping the schoolgirl on Sunday and that the two were in a car at the time.
Further details were under investigation, he added.
Kyodo news agency, quoting police, said the marine had denied raping the girl, saying he had only got on top of her and kissed her.
Japan is home to some 50,000 U.S. troops, the bulk of them in Okinawa, where many residents have long resented bearing what they see as an unfair burden for maintaining the U.S.-Japan security alliance, a pillar of Japan's post-war diplomacy.
"If this is a crime committed by a member of the U.S. military, it is extremely regrettable and we urge you to maintain strict discipline and prevent a recurrence," a Foreign Ministry statement quoted a ministry official as telling a diplomat at the U.S. embassy.
The U.S. Marine Corps in Japan said in an e-mailed statement that it was fully cooperating with the Okinawa police.
"The Marine Corps takes this allegation very seriously," the statement said.
U.S. military bases in Japan have long caused complaints from local residents about crime, noise and accidents and in 1995, the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen sparked huge protests in Okinawa.
U.S. military officials were not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Japan said he was aware that an incident was under investigation.
"We really don't have enough facts to draw any conclusions," the spokesman added.
The incident comes as Japan's government tries to persuade Okinawa residents to accept a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station from the densely populated central Okinawa city of Ginowan to the coastal city of Nago.
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