Okinawa governor urges Japan action after US Marine arrested over killing

Growing anger after US Marine Devin Jacob Ballard was arrested on suspicion of strangling Anna Yagi, 39. Save Share The governor of Okinawa has demanded that Japan’s central government do more to ensure effective discipline among United States service members on the southern island following the arrest of a US Marine on accusations that he robbed and murdered a local woman. Governor Genta Koja, in Tokyo for the first time since taking office a week ago, conveyed on Wednesday Okinawa’s outrage in his meeting with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, asking her government for further efforts to reduce the burden of hosting US military bases on the small island. “Okinawa has requested preventive measures every time similar crimes were repeated in past, and now we have this case again,” Koja told Takaichi at the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday. “I must say past disciplinary measures and human rights education implemented by the US military have not worked at all,” Koja said.