The governor of Okinawa said Monday he would request a review of a pact seen as giving the U.S. military preferential treatment in Japan, following a murder allegedly committed by an American Marine.
Prosecutors indicted the Marine last month on suspicion of murdering a 39-year-old Japanese woman at an Okinawa hotel, in a case that triggered outrage and reignited controversy over the U.S. military presence on the southern island.
The United States has around 54,000 military personnel stationed in Japan, mostly on Okinawa, and crimes committed by its personnel have been a thorn in relations between the close security allies.
Crimes including rapes, assaults, hit-and-run and drunk-driving incidents by U.S. personnel have long sparked protests on the island, which hosts about 70% of U.S. military facilities in Japan.
“I’ll call for a fundamental review of the SOFA,” said Okinawa Governor Genta Koja, referring to the 1960 Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement that critics say has rendered U.S. military bases virtually extraterritorial and immune to Japan’s domestic laws.
Under the accord, U.S. military authorities have the primary right to investigate and punish service members in Japan when they are on official duty.
Critics say this arrangement has sometimes blocked indictments by Japanese investigators, while the extraterritoriality of the U.S. bases has deterred Japanese authorities from probing suspected soil pollution around them.
Lawmakers in Okinawa adopted a resolution last month calling for revisions to the pact, which will soon be submitted to the U.S. embassy.
“After every incident or accident involving U.S. military service members or civilian employees, Okinawa has repeatedly lodged a strong protest with the U.S. military and the governments of both Japan and the United States,” Koja told a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.
The alleged murder “was an extremely heinous crime that has caused great anxiety amongst residents of Okinawa,” he said.
Okinawa prefectural police said they arrested Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, who is stationed at Futenma Air Station, on suspicion of strangling Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in the island’s capital city of Naha early on Oct. 3, 2026 and stealing her wallet and backpack. He has denied the allegations, according to Japanese media.
Koja, who was elected governor in September, is the first Okinawa leader in 12 years who has approved of a contentious U.S. military base relocation plan.
The central government’s plan is to keep the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air base on Okinawa’s main island, but move it to a less populated location.
The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is seen in August 2022.
PHILIP FONG /AFP / Getty
Koja said on Monday he would seek the “swift return” of lands used by the U.S. military in Okinawa’s commercial center under a 2013 agreement, which he said will help boost the local economy.
The review of the pact should include “prompt compliance with requests from the Japanese side to transfer suspects in detention prior to indictment and adoption of Japanese laws such as the Aviation Act to the U.S. military,” he said.
Tokyo and Washington agreed on Friday to measures aimed at preventing crimes by U.S. service members on Okinawa, including holding talks on community relations and Japan’s legal system.
U.S. officials also said on Friday they would extend for some service members a 30-day curfew imposed after the woman’s murder through Dec. 7.
AloJapan.com