US soldier charged in Okinawa with rape of minor

A US soldier has been charged with the kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl in Okinawa, a Japanese island chain that is home to the region's largest US military base.

The case is likely to fuel long-standing local resistance to the US military presence. More than half of the 54,000 U.S. soldiers serving in Japan live on the islands.

The anger has also been fueled by sexual abuse cases. One of the most notable was in 1995, when a 12-year-old girl was raped by three American soldiers. This led to months of protests.

The latest accusation also concerns a minor, who is under the age of 16, the age of consent in Japan.

The 25-year-old airman allegedly attacked her on December 24 and was identified through security camera footage after the girls' family reported it, local media reported.

He was charged in late March and has been held in Japanese prison since then, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tuesday as he made the charges public.

“We will continue to urge the U.S. side to prevent such incidents at every opportunity,” Hayashi said, adding that U.S. officials were fully cooperating with investigators.

He also said the Japanese Foreign Ministry has filed a complaint with the US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emmanuel. He added that the first hearing in the case is scheduled for July 12.

The case is “not only disturbing… but also a violation of the girl's dignity,” and “generated a significant degree of mistrust,” Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said.

Local media reported that the soldier was off duty when he allegedly approached the girl in a park and asked her to get into his car so they could talk. He then drove her to his house where he allegedly raped her.

Japan is home to one of the world's largest U.S. military forces outside the United States.

About 30,000 American soldiers are stationed in Okinawa, where the U.S. has maintained military bases since Japan's defeat in World War II.

The bases have become increasingly strategic for Washington because Okinawa's proximity to Taiwan allows the U.S. to respond quickly to any Chinese threat.

The heavy American presence is reflected in the malls, shops and restaurants serving steaks, burgers, tacos and root bears across the island chain.

In towns like Ginowan, home to a major US base called Futenma, it is not unusual for locals to wake up to the whirring sound of Osprey engines or see them flying over social housing.

According to a poll last year, seven in 10 Okinawans believe the concentration of U.S. bases on their islands is “unfair.”

While protests against the bases are common, young people in Japan are increasingly accepting the US military presence, the same poll found.

Yet accidents and crimes involving Japanese victims have long created tension around the American presence.

In 2012, a U.S. Navy officer killed two Japanese civilians in a car accident during a trip to Mount Fuji.

After 1995, the next major protests occurred in 2017, when a U.S. military base worker attended convicted of the rape and murder of a 20-year-old local woman.

In 2013, there were two U.S. Navy sailors convicted of raping an Okinawa woman in her twenties. The case led to curfews for American troops throughout Japan.

Efforts have been made to move US bases to less populated parts of Okinawa, but locals want them removed altogether.

However, experts say Japan's military alliance with the US is too strong for that. And they say Tokyo needs Washington given the challenges it faces, whether China's growing claims over disputed waters and islands, or North Korea's barrage of missile tests.