Japan Charges US Marine Over Killing and Robbery of Woman in Okinawa
Japanese prosecutors have charged 20-year-old US Marine Devin Jacob Ballard with strangling and robbing 39-year-old Anna Yagi at a hotel in Naha. The case sparked protests and led to a curfew and alcohol ban for US troops in Okinawa.
Prosecutors in Japan have formally charged US Marine Corps lance corporal Devin Jacob Ballard with murder and robbery on the island of Okinawa. According to Japanese media, the 20-year-old was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa and is accused of strangling 39-year-old Anna Yagi. The case matters because crimes by US troops in Japan have long strained relations between the two close military allies.
The case
Ballard was arrested on 4 October, about a day after Yagi was found dead in Naha, the capital of Okinawa. Prosecutors indicted him on Sunday. Public broadcaster NHK reported that he is accused of strangling the woman at a hotel and taking a backpack containing a wallet. He has reportedly denied the charges.
Japanese media previously reported that the arrest followed surveillance camera footage from near the scene. It showed a man entering a room with a woman and later leaving with her belongings. Ballard reportedly matched the description of the man in the footage and, when confronted, agreed to go voluntarily with investigators to a local police station.
Aftermath and background
The killing prompted protests in Okinawa and Tokyo, and political leaders publicly condemned it. A curfew and alcohol ban were imposed on US military members stationed in Okinawa, where most of the 54,000 US troops in Japan are based.
In June 2025, a Japanese court sentenced US Marine Jamel Clayton, then 22, to seven years in prison for choking and sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s. In 2017, Kenneth Shinzato, a former Marine and civilian base worker, received a life sentence for the rape and murder of a local woman. That same year, US forces in Japan banned all personnel from drinking alcohol after an intoxicated Marine crashed into a mini-truck and killed a 61-year-old driver.
The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that about 6,000 US military personnel have been arrested since Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972. There were 80 such arrests in 2024, a 20-year high. After Ballard's arrest, Japan's defense minister Shinjiro Koizumi said incidents involving US military personnel cause great anxiety in local communities and must not be allowed to happen.
