Japan has condemned “intolerable” US troops stationed in the country after a soldier was charged with the sexual assault of a teenager.
Prosecutors in Okinawa charged the US soldier in March, Yoshimasa Hayashi, a government spokesman, said.
Local media said the 25-year-old man had been accused of assault, adding that he knew the girl was under 16, the age of consent in Japan.
The government expressed “regret” to Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador, over the incident and called for stronger oversight of military personnel, Mr Hayashi said.
Anti-base sentiment in Okinawa
Okinawa accounts for just 0.6 per cent of Japan’s land mass but hosts about 70 per cent of all the US military bases and facilities in the country.
Base-related woes have long grieved Okinawans, from pollution to noise and helicopter crashes, leading to complaints that they bear the brunt of hosting the US troops.
The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers in the southern island region prompted widespread calls for a rethink of a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based US military personnel.
Denny Tamaki, the Okinawa governor, voiced his “strong indignation” at the latest case.
“That something like this was done to a minor not only causes great fear to local residents living side-by-side with US bases but tramples on the dignity of women”, he said.
“The excessive burden of hosting military bases is an everyday matter for us, and is intolerable.”
Anti-base sentiment in Okinawa has been displayed in particular over a plan to relocate the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
While the central government wants to move the base to a less populated part of Okinawa’s main island, many locals would prefer it to be transferred elsewhere in the country.
A nationwide poll by broadcaster NHK in 2022 found 80 per cent of Japanese consider the current disproportionate distribution of US forces “wrong” or “somewhat wrong”.