‘Here we go again’: U.S. Marine arrested for murder of woman, reigniting protests in Okinawa, Japan
Author, Kurumi Mori
Role, BBC Japan correspondent
Published 5 minutes ago
Reading time: 3 minutes
For many Okinawa residents, the arrest of a U.S. soldier accused of robbing and killing a woman in a hotel room has reignited decades of resentment over local crimes involving U.S. personnel.
Ai Sato, 52, who has lived in Okinawa for a long time, told the BBC: "Honestly, my first reaction was: 'Why are you here again?'"
"Nothing has changed since I was a child. How many more times do we have to repeat the same thing, creating more victims, causing pain to their families, and ultimately saddening the people of Okinawa?"
Akemi Oshiro, 62, who lives in Ginowan City, also feels the same way.
She told the BBC: "I know we shouldn't take terrible things like this for granted, but they happen again and again and I'm no longer surprised."
Okinawa has the largest U.S. military garrison in Japan, with multiple U.S. military bases and tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed there.
Twenty-year-old U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard (L/Cpl Devin Jacob Ballard) was arrested by Japanese police on Sunday (October 4). Police said the investigation was ongoing and that Balad was being detained by Japanese authorities because the alleged crimes were not related to official military affairs.
Whether U.S. military personnel were performing official duties at the time will determine which country has primary jurisdiction. When Japan has jurisdiction but the suspect is detained by the United States, the United States can continue to retain custody rights until Japan formally prosecutes.
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Ballard is affiliated with the III Marine Expeditionary Force and is stationed at Futenma Marine Corps Air Base in Ginowan City.
The Okinawa Prefectural Police said that the body of 39-year-old Anna Yagi was found in a hotel room in Naha City in the early morning of the 3rd.
CCTV footage allegedly showed a man believed to be the suspect entering the hotel with the woman and then leaving alone, taking away her belongings. Local media quoted police reports as saying that Wuyi appeared to have been strangled to death with a rope.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has lodged a formal protest with Washington. But residents like Sato believe that's not nearly enough.
"I am very disappointed that the government has made the same comments over and over again for decades, such as saying it would protest or saying it takes this incident very seriously."
She said: "I hope Prime Minister Gao Shi will call President Trump (Donald Trump; Trump) directly. She has always emphasized that she has a close relationship with Trump, and I hope she can discuss specific measures with him to prevent similar incidents from happening again."
After news of the suspected murder broke out, people across Japan expressed anger, and about 100 people held protests in Naha and Tokyo. Many others took to social media to express their anger and demand justice, with one user writing: "Enough is enough."
In the past few years, a number of accidents and crimes have heightened local opposition to the continued presence of U.S. troops in Okinawa.
In 2016, after a 20-year-old Okinawa woman was raped and murdered, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the huge US military presence there. A former U.S. Marine involved in the case was later sentenced to life in prison.
About 55,000 U.S. military personnel are currently stationed in Japan, with the largest concentration in the subtropical archipelago. Although Okinawa is one of the smallest prefectures in Japan, 70% of the land in Japan exclusively used by the US military is located in Okinawa.
In 1972, Okinawa Prefecture returned to Japanese rule, many years after the U.S. military occupied the Okinawa Islands at the end of World War II. Okinawa Prefectural Government data shows that since then, 6,409 criminal arrests involving U.S. military personnel have been recorded.
Local residents said the large-scale U.S. military presence has caused dissatisfaction in many areas, including crimes such as rapes, assaults and drunk driving accidents, as well as nuisances to the community such as noise and military aircraft crashes.
In 1995, three U.S. soldiers kidnapped, beat and raped a 12-year-old female student as she walked home from a stationery store.
In 2025, a U.S. Marine was convicted of strangling and sexually assaulting a Japanese woman.
