Two U.S. service members were arrested over the weekend in separate incidents near Gate 2 Street in Okinawa City, seen here on April 18, 2025. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)
Days after two Marine colonels formally apologized to Okinawan officials for a lance corporal’s misconduct, two more U.S. troops were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of assaulting local residents near Kadena Air Base, police said Monday.
A 25-year-old airman from Kadena and a 21-year-old Marine from Camp Hansen were taken into custody following unrelated assault accusations in a nightlife district outside the base, an Okinawa Prefectural Police spokesman said by phone Monday.
In the first case, police said the airman punched a Japanese woman in her 20s multiple times in the face around 3:30 a.m. Saturday in a parking lot. The woman, identified by Okinawa City police as the airman’s girlfriend, was reportedly knocked to the ground, straddled and repeatedly struck, leaving a laceration on the left side of her mouth.
She immediately reported the incident to police, who arrested the airman about three hours later, the prefectural police spokesman said.
In the second case, a Marine private first class is accused of climbing into the back seat of a parked car just after midnight Sunday and choking the 40-year-old Japanese driver with both hands, causing an abrasion to his neck, the spokesman said.
The vehicle moved during the struggle and collided with a parked car, an Okinawa City police spokesman said.
The Marine, who serves with the 3rd Marine Logistics Group, was arrested roughly 30 minutes later, the prefectural police spokesman said.
The arrests came just days after Col. Neil Owens, chief of staff for the 3rd Marine Division, delivered a formal apology to Okinawa officials in Naha regarding a separate case in which a Marine attempted to sexually assault a local woman.
During a meeting Thursday at the Okinawa prefectural office, Owens bowed his head and apologized to Masahito Tamari, director general of the Okinawa governor’s office, for “causing anxiety to the victims and the people of Okinawa prefecture,” a prefectural spokesman said by phone Monday.
Tamari condemned the case as “absolutely unforgivable” and questioned “the way the U.S. military maintains discipline and educates its personnel,” the spokesman said.
That case involved Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton, 22, of Ohio, who was convicted June 24 of injuring a woman while attempting to sexually assault her. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and has filed an appeal.
Owens was accompanied by Col. Michael Escher, assistant chief of staff with government and external affairs at Marine Corps Installations Pacific, said division spokesman Capt. Kazuma Engelkemier.
“We are committed to engaging with Japanese authorities, regardless of the severity of the incident, and maintaining efforts to educate, prevent and cooperate when looking at mitigating the possibility of any future incidents,” he said by email Monday.
Both service members accused in the weekend incidents were still in custody as of Monday morning, and their cases have been forwarded to the Naha Public Prosecutors Office, the city police spokesman said.
Capt. Brett Vannier, spokesman for the logistics group, said by email Monday that the Marine Corps is cooperating with the investigation. The 18th Wing at Kadena acknowledged but did not immediately answer an email inquiry that day.
Prosecutors, not police, determine whether to file formal charges under Japan’s legal system. Stars and Stripes is withholding the service members’ names because neither has been charged.
It’s customary in Japan that some government officials speak to the media on condition of anonymity.
