There were three other cases of sexual abuse last year and this year involving U.S. service members stationed in Okinawa Prefecture, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday, in addition to the two reported cases that resulted in charges.
His comments came after a flood of complaints from people in Okinawa and elsewhere that the central government had not acted quickly enough to inform local authorities about recent cases of sex crimes involving U.S. servicemen in the prefecture, which is home to many U.S. military bases.
In March, a pilot was charged with kidnapping and raping a girl last December, and last month a Marine was prosecuted for attempting to sexually assault and injure a woman in May.
