Japanese police on Dec. 9, 2025, recommended prosecutors charge a U.S. sailor involved in a deadly collision in Yokosuka city, Japan, in April 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOSUKA, Japan — Japanese police on Tuesday forwarded to prosecutors their case against a U.S. sailor involved in a deadly motorcycle collision earlier this year.
Police allege the sailor was driving negligently April 27 when he made a right turn in Yokosuka’s Heisei neighborhood and collided with a Japanese motorcyclist, Shinji Takahashi, 47, in the intersection.
Takahashi was pronounced dead less than an hour later at a nearby hospital.
Police on Tuesday recommended that prosecutors charge the sailor, who is stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base, a Yokosuka city police spokesman said by phone Friday.
Prosecutors, not police, decide formal charges under Japan’s criminal justice system.
Stars and Stripes is withholding the service member’s identity until formal charges are filed.
If convicted, he could face up to seven years imprisonment and a maximum fine of about $6,000, according to the Japan Legal Support Center website.
Takahashi’s family filed a civil lawsuit against the sailor last week seeking roughly $772,000, according to their attorney, Masahiko Goto.
The lawsuit lists Takahashi’s three sons, his mother, two brothers and his partner as plaintiffs.
Their suit alleges serious negligence and seeks compensation for the loss of a family member, according to a copy of the filing provided by Goto.
The family filed suit ahead of criminal charges to ensure their suit could be served on the sailor before he can leave Japan, Goto said.
Goto also represents the family of Tsubasa Ito, who died after a September 2024 collision with another Yokosuka sailor, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jaden Edwin Llanos. He was convicted in May of negligent driving causing death and received a suspended 1 ½-year sentence.
Llanos has since left Japan, preventing a civil suit from moving forward because the court cannot serve him with the documents, Goto said.
AloJapan.com