Japanese police arrest US Marine after CCTV links him to Okinawa hotel death

Japan urges stricter discipline for US forces after Okinawa incident

Japanese police arrested Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, on Sunday on suspicion of killing Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, the southern Japanese island that hosts about 70 percent of US military facilities in Japan. Local police told Japanese media that Ballard allegedly “killed [a] 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet” as well as her backpack.

Investigators identified Ballard through CCTV footage from near the scene, public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese outlets reported, citing investigation sources. The footage showed a foreign man entering a room with a woman and later leaving with her belongings. Police located a 20-year-old man matching the suspect’s description and asked him to voluntarily accompany them to a local police station, where he was arrested, according to NHK. Ballard denied the allegations, police told NBC News, which first identified him as the suspect.

Yagi’s brother, speaking through local police, told the Asahi Shimbun daily: “We have lost a family member and are deeply saddened. My parents, in particular, are utterly devastated at the loss of their daughter.”

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi lodged a formal protest with US authorities and called the killing “exceptionally brutal and vicious.” The government has urged the US “to provide maximum cooperation with the investigation, enforce stricter discipline among US military personnel, and take thorough measures to prevent the recurrence of similar crimes,” Takaichi said.

US Ambassador to Japan George Glass said on social media that he had spoken with Japan’s foreign ministry and Okinawa’s governor, offering “sincere condolences to the victim’s family” and pledging cooperation in the investigation.

Japan’s defense minister Shinjiro Koizumi said: “Incidents and accidents involving US military personnel cause great anxiety among the local community and must not be allowed to happen.”

Okinawa bears a disproportionate share of the US military presence in Japan, hosting about 70 percent of US military facilities in the country. About 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly on Okinawa. Crimes by US personnel — including rapes, assaults, hit-and-run incidents and drunk-driving crashes — have long sparked protests on the island.

Recent cases have drawn significant legal attention. In June 2025, a Japanese court sentenced US Marine Jamel Clayton — then 22 — to seven years in prison after convicting him of choking and sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s. In 2017, former US Marine and civilian military base worker Kenneth Shinzato was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a local woman on Okinawa.

That same year, US forces in Japan banned all personnel from consuming alcohol after an intoxicated American Marine crashed his vehicle into a mini-truck, killing its 61-year-old local driver.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, about 6,000 US military personnel have been arrested on Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan from the US in 1972 after the second world war. Arrests hit 80 in 2024 — the highest annual total in 20 years.