Asia-Pacific
Military spouse threatened husband’s alleged lover with knife, Japanese police say
Stars and Stripes November 14, 2023
A U.S. military spouse on Okinawa was arrested this week on suspicion of entering the home of her husband's alleged lover and threatening her with a knife. (Pixabay)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese police, after a two-month investigation, jailed the wife of a U.S. service member on Okinawa this week on suspicion of trespassing and threatening her husband’s supposed lover with a knife.
Police took the unidentified 32-year-old American into custody around 2:20 p.m. Monday on a street in central Okinawa, an Okinawa police spokesman said by phone Tuesday. The woman lives on a Marine Corps base on Okinawa, he added.
Police allege the spouse entered another woman’s apartment in the same area on Sept. 11 and threatened her with a knife. No injuries resulted, the spokesman said.
Okinawa police declined to release some details of the case, including the military spouse’s name, her husband’s unit affiliation and which base she lives on, to protect the privacy of the woman police said the spouse threatened.
The spouse remained jailed Tuesday, the spokesman said.
Police responded to a trespassing call just before midnight Sept. 11, the spokesman said. The caller told police a woman had entered and threatened her with a knife, but left before police arrived.
“The suspect’s husband is a service member and seems to be in an intimate relationship with the woman,” the spokesman said. “That seems to be the reason why the suspect went to the woman’s house and threatened her.”
Some government officials in Japan may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
Police plan to forward charges of trespassing and violating Japan’s physical violence laws to prosecutors on Wednesday, the spokesman said. If convicted in a Japanese court, the spouse faces a maximum 4½ years in prison or a $2,600 fine.