Tokyo (AFP) – Curb on alcohol consumption, curfew, education: Japan and the United States agreed on Friday on measures to better regulate the presence of American troops on the island of Okinawa, after a murder committed by an American marine.
Published on: 06/11/2026 - 1:16 p.m.
Around 54,000 American soldiers are stationed in Japan, mainly in Okinawa, and the crimes attributed to these soldiers have long been a source of tension in bilateral relations.
“We agreed on strengthening the education of American soldiers in Okinawa,” Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters.
“Concretely, we will take into account the opinions of the Okinawa prefecture in the orientation guide (...) intended for newly arrived American soldiers,” he indicated.
A senior Foreign Ministry official will deliver outreach speeches to members of the U.S. forces in Okinawa on relations with the local community and the Japanese legal system.
The two countries also agreed to increase the frequency and expand the scope of joint Japan-U.S. street patrols, he added.
On October 26, Japanese prosecutors indicted a U.S. Marine for the alleged murder of a 39-year-old Japanese woman at an Okinawa hotel on October 3, who was strangled with a telephone cord.
This affair aroused indignation in Japan and reignited controversy over the strong American military presence in this southern island. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi denounced an “exceptionally brutal and heinous crime”.
Crimes including rapes, assaults, hit-and-runs and drunk driving cases involving US military personnel have long sparked protests. Last year, a Japanese court sentenced a U.S. Marine to seven years in prison for strangling and attempting to rape a woman in her 20s.
US forces in Okinawa were banned from consuming alcohol for two days in early October and placed under a 30-day curfew.
A second marine was later arrested for drunk driving, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said earlier this week.
American officials announced on Friday the extension of this curfew for some of their military until December 7.
© 2026 AFP
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