Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Okinawa Governor Genta Koja, at a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Wednesday, lodged a protest following the murder and robbery allegedly committed by a U.S. Marine in the southernmost Japan prefecture earlier this month. At the meeting, held at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Koja urged Koizumi to ensure that effective measures to prevent a recurrence should be taken. Noting that crimes involving U.S. military personnel continue to occur in Okinawa, Koja said, “I have no choice but to say that the U.S. military’s human rights education has not functioned at all.” The governor requested that the Japanese government urge the U.S. side to fully cooperate for the investigation into the latest case and thoroughly improve discipline among U.S. troops in the prefecture. Koizumi said, “We plan to hold discussions with the United States on how we can take effective measures.” On Sunday, Okinawa police arrested Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, stationed at the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air base in the Okinawa city of Ginowan, on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman in a room of a hotel in Naha, the capital of the prefecture, and stealing her belongings on Saturday. Koja also asked Koizumi for a revision of the Japan-U.S. status of forces agreement, which stipulates rules on the U.S. military’s use of facilities and areas in Japan and its legal status in the Asian country. The governor also met with Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Wednesday. He is set to hold talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister’s office later in the day, in their first meeting since the governor took office at the end of September. Koja won the Sept. 13 Okinawa gubernatorial election, thanks to support mainly from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Takaichi, and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
