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An unidentified man, barefoot and muddy in a black and white track suit, attempted to climb a steel fence within the grounds of Camp Foster, Okinawa, Wednesday, March 2, 2022.

An unidentified man, barefoot and muddy in a black and white track suit, attempted to climb a steel fence within the grounds of Camp Foster, Okinawa, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (Frank Andrews/Stars and Stripes)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa —  The provost marshal’s office arrested a 46-year-old man Wednesday on suspicion of trespassing onto this Marine Corps base.

The unidentified man, barefoot and muddy in a black and white track suit, attempted to climb a black, steel fence within the base grounds and apparently injured himself.

He was spotted climbing into a fenced-off area opposite the 3rd Dental Battalion building on Foster, a Marine Corps base, at about noon Wednesday.

“We do not have his name. He was spotted by a person that was working at a building and looked out the window and saw him and stopped him,” Cpl. Chandler Schmidt of the provost marshal told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Okinawa police said the officers on scene had not yet filed a report on the incident.

“I don’t think his act was based on political beliefs or anything like that,” the spokesman said Wednesday. Government spokespeople in Japan typically speak to the media on condition of anonymity.

An unidentified man, barefoot and muddy in a black and white track suit, attempted to climb a steel fence within the grounds of Camp Foster, Okinawa, Wednesday, March 2, 2022.

An unidentified man, barefoot and muddy in a black and white track suit, attempted to climb a steel fence within the grounds of Camp Foster, Okinawa, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (Frank Andrews/Stars and Stripes)

In October, Toshiko Taira, 49, of Uruma city, was arrested while riding a bicycle around Foster. She hopped a fence to get on base, a spokesman from Okinawa Police Station told Stars and Stripes at the time.

Taira had no valid reason for being on the base in Ginowan, according to police. "She hasn’t told us why she entered," the spokesman said.

A conviction for trespassing on a U.S. military installation in Japan carries up to a year in prison or a fine of less than $18, according to Japanese law.

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Frank Andrews is a reporter at Camp Foster, Okinawa. He’s an alumnus of the Defense Information School and University of Maryland University College. His previous Navy assignments have taken him to Iraq, Bahrain, Diego Garcia, Japan, South Korea and Naval Special Warfare Command in California.

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