Police in Japan have arrested a US Marine stationed on the southern island of Okinawa on suspicion of murdering a 39-year-old Japanese woman, authorities said on Sunday. Police allege the suspect killed the woman at a hotel in Naha, Okinawa's main city, and stole her wallet and backpack. The killing is reported to have taken place on Saturday.
Citing police, NBC News identified the suspect as Lance Cpl Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, and the victim as Anna Yagi. Ballard denied the allegations, according to police. Japanese public broadcaster NHK, citing investigation sources, reported that CCTV footage from near the scene showed a foreign man entering a room with a woman and later leaving with her belongings. Police then located a 20-year-old man matching the description in the footage and asked him to accompany them voluntarily to a police station, where he was arrested. Yagi's brother, speaking through police and quoted by the Asahi Shimbun, said the family was deeply saddened and that her parents were utterly devastated.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the crime "exceptionally brutal and vicious" and said Japan had lodged a protest with US authorities. Her government has urged Washington to provide maximum cooperation with the investigation, enforce stricter discipline among US military personnel and take thorough measures to prevent similar crimes. Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said incidents involving US personnel cause great anxiety in local communities and must not happen. US Ambassador George Glass said on social media that he had spoken with Japan's foreign ministry and Okinawa's governor, offering condolences to the family and pledging full cooperation.
The case revives a long-standing source of friction between Tokyo and Washington, close security allies. Okinawa, a chain of islands far from Japan's main population centres, hosts about 70% of US military facilities in Japan, and the US has roughly 54,000 military personnel in the country, mostly there. Crimes including rape, assault, hit-and-run and drink-driving by US personnel have repeatedly prompted protests on the island.
Recent precedents are well known locally. In June 2025, a Japanese court sentenced Marine Jamel Clayton to seven years in prison for choking and sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s. In 2017, Kenneth Shinzato, a former Marine and civilian base worker, received a life sentence for the rape and murder of a local woman. That same year, US forces in Japan banned all personnel from drinking alcohol after an intoxicated Marine crashed into a mini-truck, killing its 61-year-old driver. The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that about 6,000 US military personnel have been arrested since Okinawa reverted to Japanese control from the US in 1972, with 80 arrests in 2024, the highest annual figure in 20 years.
The investigation is continuing.