Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine urged the central government Tuesday to step up measures to put a stop to crimes involving U.S. servicemen in Okinawa Prefecture, following the arrest of a U.S. Marine last week on suspicion of molesting a teenage girl.
"This is a very important issue for Okinawa," Inamine told reporters after making the request in a meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda. "We want effective steps, since the measures that have been implemented so far have not had an effect."
Inamine said he made the same request in separate meetings with Ryutaro Hashimoto, minister in charge of Okinawa and the Northern Territories issue, and Defense Agency chief Toshitsugu Saito.
Fukuda said at a news conference he told Inamine that problems involving the U.S. military are "extremely regrettable" and promised to issue a strong request to the U.S. military to prevent further incidents.
According to Fukuda, Inamine also asked the central government to make efforts to reduce the number of U.S. Marines in the island prefecture.
The 21-year-old U.S. Marine was arrested Jan. 9 in northern Okinawa on suspicion of lifting the 16-year-old high school girl's skirt and taking a picture.
Okinawa accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's land area, but is home to about 75 percent of the territory occupied by U.S. military facilities in Japan.