Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine asked the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday for help to boost the number of police officers in his prefecture from the current 2,290 to deal with incidents involving U.S. military personnel based there, ministry officials said.
"We are asking appropriate ministries and agencies to increase the number of police in Okinawa Prefecture in light of the need to prevent crimes around U.S. military bases and to deal with the increasing population," Inamine was quoted as telling Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shigeo Uetake.
"We would like to ask the Foreign Ministry to provide support in this case," the governor said. Inamine was accompanied by prefectural government and police officials.
Uetake promised that the ministry will do everything it can to help Okinawa in the matter but stopped short of specifying how many additional police officers could be deployed, the officials said.