AFP, TOKYO: An US sailor was indicted in Japan Friday for allegedly raping a Japanese woman on Okinawa, according to reports, in a case that could further increase tensions over the American military presence on the fortified island.
Okinawa was the site of a brutal World War II battle between Japan and the United States but is now considered a strategic linchpin supporting the two countries’ decades-long security alliance.
More than half of the 47,000 American military personnel in Japan are stationed there and rapes and other crimes by US service personnel have sparked local protests in the past.
The Naha district public prosecutors office on the island charged Justin Castellanos, 24, stationed at the US Marine Corps Camp Schwab base on the island, with the alleged crime, Jiji Press and other media reported.
Castellanos was arrested last month for allegedly raping a Japanese tourist while she was unconscious at a hotel in the Okinawan capital city of Naha, police said.