A 20-year-old U.S. Marine stationed in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture has been arrested on suspicion of robbing and murdering a Japanese woman at a hotel in the prefectural capital, Naha, Japanese police said Sunday.
The suspect, Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, is assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa. Police suspect he killed 39-year-old Anna Yagi at a hotel in Naha early Saturday and took her wallet and backpack. Ballard has denied the allegations, according to police.
Police said Yagi was found unconscious in a hotel room early Saturday and was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators reviewed security-camera footage showing a man believed to be a foreign national entering the room with Yagi and later leaving alone while carrying her belongings.
Japanese police later located Ballard in a nightlife district in Okinawa City and arrested him early Sunday. Investigators are examining the circumstances of the woman’s death, the relationship between the two and the events before and after the incident.
The U.S. military said it was cooperating with Japanese authorities over the allegations and expressed condolences to the victim’s family. U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass also said his office was providing full cooperation with the investigation.
Japan has delivered a strong protest to the United States following the arrest, according to Japanese media. The case is likely to renew scrutiny of the long-running tensions surrounding the large U.S. military presence in Okinawa, where many local residents have raised concerns over crimes, accidents and other incidents involving U.S. personnel.
Okinawa hosts a significant share of U.S. military facilities in Japan, including Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The U.S. military presence has remained a longstanding source of political and social tension on the island.
The latest case also recalls the 2016 killing of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro. Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a former U.S. Marine who was working as a civilian employee at a U.S. base at the time, was convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017. His appeal was later dismissed, and the sentence became final in 2018.
Japanese authorities have not disclosed a possible motive in the latest case. The investigation is continuing, and the allegations against Ballard have not been established in court.
