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Yokota Air Base is home of the 374th Airlift Wing, 5th Air Force and U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

Yokota Air Base is home of the 374th Airlift Wing, 5th Air Force and U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo. (Stars and Stripes)

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — A former U.S. service member was arrested this week after allegedly throwing a sheet of glass at an entry gate late last year at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.

Louis Bonamigo, 51, an unemployed man living in Mizuho, a city near Yokota Air Base, was taken into custody Tuesday on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman said Wednesday.

Traffic and military police operations were interrupted at Gate 20 after the glass shattered there at 4:40 a.m. Dec. 15, according to the spokesman. It’s customary in Japan for some government officials to speak to the media on condition of anonymity.

There were no injuries, according to Japanese broadcaster TBS. Police are looking into links to other incidents involving objects thrown onto the base, including a sofa in December and a large plastic box in September.

A spokeswoman for Yokota’s 374th Airlift Wing, Kaori Matsukasa, in an email Thursday declined to comment because Bonamigo is not in Japan under the status of forces agreement. She referred questions to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, which did not immediately respond Thursday.

robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1

kusumoto.hana@stripes.com Twitter: @HanaKusumoto

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Seth Robson is a Tokyo-based reporter who has been with Stars and Stripes since 2003. He has been stationed in Japan, South Korea and Germany, with frequent assignments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Australia and the Philippines.
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Hana Kusumoto is a reporter/translator who has been covering local authorities in Japan since 2002. She was born in Nagoya, Japan, and lived in Australia and Illinois growing up. She holds a journalism degree from Boston University and previously worked for the Christian Science Monitor’s Tokyo bureau.

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