Okinawa News

The U.S. military imposed a day-and-night curfew on all its personnel in Okinawa Prefecture, beginning at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, following recent incidents involving U.S. servicemen such as the alleged rape of a teenage Japanese girl.

No duration has been set for the curfew, designated as a period of reflection. The measure also applies to U.S. military personnel stationed at Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

It covers not only Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps servicepersons living on and off military bases but also their relatives and nonmilitary staff.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said he ''values'' the measures taken by the U.S. military, but noted that further bilateral discussions are needed to work out specific steps to prevent incidents involving U.S. military personnel from occurring.

''I take the decision to impose the curfew and other measures as having significance in their own way as the first step in the serious discussions'' aimed at detailing preventive measures, Machimura told a press conference.

The top Japanese government spokesman added that he has heard that it is rare for the U.S. military to impose a daytime curfew on its personnel.

Military personnel living on bases are basically banned from leaving their base except for occasions related to church, school, the hospital, or their official duties.

Personnel living outside the bases can, in principle, only move between the installations and their homes by private car, taxi or military transport.

U.S. Forces Japan will designate Feb. 22 as a ''Day of Reflection'' for all U.S. military facilities in Japan, setting up a ''Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Task Force'' in an effort to prevent similar incidents.

The U.S. military came under fire after a Marine was arrested for allegedly raping a junior high school girl in the city of Okinawa on the night of Feb. 10. The United States immediately promised to tighten discipline among U.S. soldiers.

But uproar in Japan continued following revelations that a Marine was arrested for drunk driving in the same city and another Marine was arrested for trespassing after he was found passed out on a sofa in a private residence in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.

==Kyodo

NAHA -- A U.S. soldier in Okinawa is being investigated Thursday over allegations that he raped a Filipina, police said.

U.S. military law enforcers have taken the accused man into custody, but the woman who accuses him of rape has not pressed charges with Okinawa Prefectural Police.

Police are questioning the woman and others associated with the case and will take out a warrant for the soldier's arrest for rape if the alleged victim files a criminal complaint.

Anti-U.S. sentiment is escalating in Okinawa, which hosts a significant proportion of the U.S. military forces stationed in Japan. On Feb. 11, a U.S. Marine was arrested for the rape of a junior high schoolgirl. U.S. military officials in Okinawa were supposed to tighten discipline in wake of the incident, so the current allegations are likely to further inflame the people of Okinawa.

Police said the Filipino woman at the center of the current allegations says she was raped around Feb. 18 and underwent a medical examination immediately after.

Following the 38-year-old Marine's Feb. 11 arrest for rape, other members of the same branch of the military have been arrested in Okinawa for drunken driving and trespassing. U.S. military officials in Okinawa imposed a curfew on SOFA personnel in Okinawa on Wednesday.

NAHA -- China Airlines has painted over its name and logo on the wreckage of a passenger jet that exploded in flames at Naha Airport in Okinawa moments after passengers slid down emergency chutes to escape.

The airline painted over the name "China Airlines" on the left-hand side of the aircraft and the company's logo on the plane's tail fin.

After the accident, photographs and video footage of the jet continued to appear in news reports, and the company apparently painted over the name and logo to limit further damage to its image.

Before painting over the name and logo, the airline sought permission from the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry's Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission. Officials granted the request, judging that it would not hinder the investigation into the accident, and the airline painted over the markings following inspections carried out on Tuesday.

When questioned over the move, an official from the Taiwan-based airline said, "We followed international procedures. We do not have detailed information." (Mainichi)

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura blasted an incident in which a U.S. Marine was arrested on suspicion of trespassing in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Monday, saying discipline appeared to be lax.

"It's an incident that occurred amid cries for stricter enforcement of discipline (following the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine in Okinawa), and one can only conclude that they're slack," Machimura said in a news conference on Monday morning.

"We must strongly call on the U.S. government to reflect on this. It is deplorable and I am angered by it," he said.

A high-ranking official of a major luxury retailer on island has urged Guam leaders to learn from the experience of Okinawa, which managed to build a vibrant tourism industry despite hosting thousands of U.S. military personnel. Jim Beighley, research and planning managing director of DFS and a board member of the Guam Visitors Bureau, said Guam officials should consult with Okinawa, which has years of experience in integrating tourism with the military.

NAHA -- Residents of an Okinawa island who committed mass suicide during World War II were ordered to do so by the Japanese military, claims a historian who has quoted a new witness in her book to be published later this month.

Harumi Miyagi, 58, a historian from Naha, has included the witness's account in the new edition of her book, "Haha no Nokoshita mono (What my mother left for me)," to be released by Koubunken on Jan. 30.

"The residents didn't die of their own will. The military should be held responsible (for its role in the mass suicide)," says Miyagi.

The book, which is a revised edition of the one published in December 2000 under the same title, adds a new witness account by a younger sister of the then deputy mayor of Zamami, Okinawa Prefecture.

"My brother (the deputy mayor) was saying, 'The military told us to die rather than surrender if the enemy landed (on Zamami Island),' " the sister was quoted as telling Miyagi in June last year.

Miyagi says that she interviewed the sister of the former deputy mayor when she was preparing for the first edition of her book, but that she could not obtain the account at that time.

Some 171 residents committed mass suicide on Zamami Island when the U.S. military invaded the island in late March, 1945.

Miyagi's book is based on the accounts of her late mother, Hatsue, who had worked for the Zamami Municipal Government during the war. She died in December 1990 at the age of 69.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said the government will strictly deal with alleged rape of a girl in Okinawa by a U.S. Marine.

"Several similar incidents had happened before, and now it has occurred again. We'll firmly negotiate with the United States. We'll deal with the matter based on evidence and in accordance with Japanese legislation," Fukuda told a House of Representatives Budget Committee session on Tuesday.

He was responding to a question by Yasuyuki Eda, a legislator from the ruling coalition partner Komeito.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura expressed grave concern about the impact of the incident.

"There's no way that prefectural residents' feelings won't be affected by the incident," Komura told a press conference following a regular Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. "The question is whether the U.S. government can tighten discipline among U.S. forces and prevent a recurrence to minimize the impact this will have on Japan-U.S. relations."

Workers in a labor union representing Japanese employees of U.S. military bases in Japan went on a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest a proposed 10 percent cut in benefits.

Members of the All Japan Garrison Forces Labor Union began the four-hour strike from the start of operations in the predawn hours of Wednesday. It was the first strike to be carried out on a nationwide scale in 16 years. The union members are reportedly preparing for another eight-hour strike at the end of the month, and a three-day strike next month if their protests are ignored.

The strike came in response to the Ministry of Defense's proposal to abolish scaled-up payments made to workers because of the special nature of their jobs, such as insecure employment conditions. The cuts, which come in line with Japan's plan to reduce financial support to U.S. bases, would save about 10 billion yen a year.

However, the union has furiously protested against the proposal, saying that the actual wage standard of base workers is lower than that of other civil servants. It points out that workers are not entitled to apply for compensation for workplace accidents without permission from the U.S. military, and that the Labor Standards Law and other domestic labor-related laws do not apply to them.

The ministry says that the special nature of the workers' jobs has disappeared, but the union disagrees.

"Absolutely nothing has changed," a union representative said.

The union represents about 67 percent of some 25,000 workers at U.S. military bases across the nation.

Outside the Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture, about 450 union members formed a picket. They asked Japanese entering the base to show identification, and if they were base employees, they asked them to support the strike. One female worker who was stopped at the gate called her workplace on her cell phone. Another male worker got into a scuffle with the picketers after he ignored them and tried to walk past, and in the end he was unable to gain entry.

NAHA -- Six citizens groups are set to stage a rally on March 23 to protest the alleged rape of a junior high school girl in Okinawa Prefecture by a U.S. Marine, organizers said.

Representatives from the groups have contacted Toshinobu Nakazato, speaker of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, and asked that the assembly lead the rally.

However, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito that form the ruling bloc in the prefectural assembly are reportedly reluctant to support the rally. It remains to be seen if the rally will be a large-scale multi-partisan gathering.

The six organizations, including a local women's association, formed a protest rally organizing committee with the Okinawa Prefecture Teachers' Union on Feb. 19.

In the rally to be held in Chatan, where the incident occurred, participants will urge both the Japanese and U.S. governments to pay compensation to the victim, revise the Japan-U.S. Status-of-Forces Agreement and implement specific measures to prevent a recurrence.

URUMA, Okinawa -- Local education officials are complaining after a U.S. military jeep used a parking lot at a school for disabled students to do a U-turn, local officials said.

The Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education plans to file a protest with the U.S. forces over the incident as early as Friday.

According to officials, the medium-sized two-seater jeep drove onto the premises of the Okinawa prefectural high school for the mentally disabled in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture, at around 2 p.m. on Thursday.

The jeep made a U-turn in a parking lot about 30 meters away from the main gate and left the premises about 1 1/2 minutes later.

Around 70 teachers were in the school at the time. There were no students due to spring break.

This was not the first case of intrusion by U.S. military vehicles into schools in Okinawa. A U.S. Marines armored vehicle entered the same high school on July 18 last year, while another U.S. military truck entered the Okinawa Prefectural Maehara High School on Aug. 6 last year. Both schools are about 1 kilometer away from each other.

"When we filed a protest against the intrusions last year, the U.S. military said they would take thorough measures to stop it from happening again. Here comes an intrusion again, right after prefectural citizens held a rally protesting the incidents (triggered by U.S. servicemen)," said Morikazu Nakamura, superintendent of the prefectural board of education.

NAHA -- A man drowned on Friday while trying to swim from an island in Okinawa to an uninhabited island, police said.

At about 5:30 p.m., a worker at a diving school discovered a man off a beach on Tokashiki Island who had sunk to the sea bottom. The man was taken to a clinic on the island where he was pronounced dead.

The man has been identified as Keiji Yoshida, 23, a resident of Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, local police said. Yoshida drowned while attempting to swim across the sea with a friend to an uninhabited island about 600 meters from Tokashiki.

MOTOBU, Okinawa -- A man drowned while snorkeling in the sea off an Okinawa Prefecture island, police said.

Yasuhiro Yasuda, 50, a company employee from Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, was found by his 49-year-old wife floating face-down in the sea off Sesoko Island in Mobobu at around 8:40 a.m. on Sunday, according to local police. He was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead about 80 minutes later.

Investigators suspect that Yasuda drowned while snorkeling. Yasuda had arrived in Okinawa on Friday last week with his wife and two other relatives.

MOTOBU, Okinawa -- A cherry festival is under way on a mountain here as Kanhizakura cherry trees are now in full bloom.

Dark pink flowers on some 7,000 trees add color to subtropical forests on Mount Yaedake in Motobu on Okinawa's main island, attracting attention from local residents and visitors.

Unlike someiyoshino, the common cherry on Japan's mainland, kanhizakura (or Taiwanese cherry) trees are known for their dark pink flowers, and inhabit subtropical areas including Okinawa Prefecture and Taiwan.

The Motobu Yaedake Cherry Festival is scheduled to last until Feb. 11.

NAHA -- Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima expressed anger at the alleged rape of a junior high school girl by a U.S. marine on Monday.

"I can never forgive this. I feel a burning resentment over the incident," Nakaima told reporters at the prefectural government headquarters on Monday. "Whenever an incident like this occurred, we urged U.S. forces to take every precaution to prevent it happening again. It's a tragedy ..."

However, Nakaima denied the incident will adversely affect the proposed relocation of U.S. Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to an area off Camp Schwab in Nago in the same prefecture.

"It's natural that the incident will adversely affect prefectural residents' sentiment. However, I believe it's significant that the land occupied by Futenma Air Station will be returned to its owners through negotiations on the restructuring of U.S. forces in Japan, and will be reused," he said.

Okinawa Prefectural Police arrested Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, a marine stationed at Camp Courtney in Okinawa Prefecture, on Monday for raping the 14-year-old victim in Chatan.

NAHA -- An Okinawa Prefectural Government youth worker arrested for indecent exposure earlier this month has been slapped with a fresh charge over the failed sex attack on a schoolgirl almost two years ago, police said.

Kyoji Kishimoto, 37, the prefectural government official from Naha, was charged with attempted indecent assault in connection with a June 2006 incident, in which he allegedly tried to sexually assault a schoolgirl in Naha.

Kishimoto admits to the allegations.

Kishimoto was first arrested May 10 for indecent exposure for allegedly flashing his private parts in front of a Naha department store. He denies the allegations in this case.

"I was only relieving myself," he said.

Police said the new charge against Kishimoto stems from an attack on June 30, 2006. Police said Kishimoto flashed at a schoolgirl, then grabbed her arms and tried to perform indecent acts on her. The girl screamed for help and ran away.

Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima submitted a petition to the education minister on Wednesday demanding the ministry withdraw its order to modify school textbooks to delete descriptions that the Japanese army forced civilians to commit mass suicide during World War II.

Gov. Nakaima met Minister Kisaburo Tokai at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Tokyo's Chiyoda-ku on Wednesday morning. It was the first time that the education minister had met with an Okinawa Prefectural Government official regarding the textbook screening issue.

During a press conference after the meeting, Gov. Nakaima said, "I would like to highly appreciate the government's attempt to understand the delicate part of Okinawa Prefecture, where the wounds of World War II are yet to be healed," adding that he hoped the central government would move toward resolving the issue.

The move came after some 110,000 people joined a protest in Okinawa last Saturday against the ministry's order to modify the textbooks.

Toshinobu Nakazato, speaker of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, accompanied Gov. Nakaima during Wednesday's meeting with the education minister, where he read out a resolution adopted during the Sept. 29 mass protest.

"It is a fact that the mass suicides could not have happened without the involvement of the Japanese army, and the ministry's order to modify textbook descriptions denies and distorts witnesses' accounts. As residents of the nation's only prefecture that suffered ground battles, we can never tolerate the modification," Nakazato said in reading out the resolution.

November 26 News for: okinawa

Funds for development in Okinawa unfrozen
The Japan Times - Japan
Local governments in Okinawa have proposed that the runways be built further offshore to reduce the noise impact on nearby residential areas. ...

Guam urged to adopt Okinawa tourism model
Marianas Variety - Saipan,Northern Mariana Islands,Micronesia
By Gerardo R. Partido A HIGH-ranking official of a major luxury retailer on island has urged Guam leaders to learn from the experience of Okinawa, ...

dvd review: battle of okinawa
Cinematic Happenings Under Development - New York,NY,USA
... place were on several pacific islands between japanese and american forces. the battle on the island of okinawa was severe as more than 100000 civilians ...

World War II memoirs preserve history for families - A World at War
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - Cleveland,OH,USA
... Dorothy, of Parma Heights, persuaded him to sit down and tell the whole story of his service, which included combat in New Guinea, Peleliu and Okinawa. ...

Paula Allen: Japanese woman's memorial prayer salutes American soldier
San Antonio Express - San Antonio,TX,USA
Her daughter Roslyn "Sissy" mccumber now lives in Okinawa, where her husband Frank is stationed. Recently, Mrs. mccumber visited the Peace Prayer Park, ...

Several craft fairs on tap today
Honolulu Advertiser - Honolulu,HI,USA
Winter Craft Fair, presented by the Hawaii United Okinawa Association, more than 160 craft and food vendors, silent auction, free retina screening by ...

okinawa electric power bonds due 2010 rated
Hemscott - London,UK
mumbai (thomson financial) - moody's investors service said it has assigned an 'aa2' rating with a stable outlook to okinawa electric power company inc's ...

Kyuma-Moriya relationship a sour one
The Daily Yomiuri - Osaka,Japan
The relocation of the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture was said to have exacerbated the deterioration of their relationship. ...

News headlines for: okinawa

Eat your veggies, says study on Okinawa diet
Stars and Stripes - Washington,DC,USA
By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes At least that's what Americans participating in an Okinawa longevity study have taken to heart firsthand. ...

Bryant man uncovers Japanese flag uncle obtained during WWII
Benton Courier - Benton,AR,USA
Wayne Downey of Bryant talks about the Japanese flag his uncle, Arnold Walton, obtained in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa. The flag, recently uncovered ...

Pitching Biggest Worry for Korea
Korea Times - South Korea
By Kang Seung-woo South Korea's national baseball team has wrapped up its training in Okinawa, Japan, for the final qualifying round of the Beijing Olympics ...

Pagasa: 'Mina' further weakens as it heads toward Japan
GMA news.tv - Quezon City,Metro Manila,Philippines
It was moving north-northeast at 15 kph and was expected to be 80 km north-northeast of Basco, Batanes or 190 km south-southwest of Okinawa, Japan Tuesday ...

Google News Alert for: okinawa

"The" way vs "a" way (Japan v China dept)
Atlantic Online - USA
This is the recent scene: yesterday afternoon, Naha airport, Okinawa, Japan. Line crew gassing up a Cirrus SR22: Details to notice below: crew identically ...

Japan book row reopens old wounds
Aljazeera.net - Qatar
The issue is one of the country's most notorious wartime incidents: during the US invasion of Okinawa in the closing days of the second world war, ...

Books: Looking Beyond Ken Burns' 'The War'
Berkeley Daily Planet - Berkeley,CA,USA
"For the men of the 'old breed' who struggled, bled, died, and eventually won on Peleliu and Okinawa, Sledgehammer is their most eloquent spokesman. ...

Okinawa-based officers heading up cyclone relief effort
Stars and Stripes - Washington,DC,USA
Two Okinawa-based general officers are in charge of US relief efforts in Bangladesh, in response to a Nov. 15 cyclone which killed more than 3200 people ...

Kadena Elementary School fourth-grade teacher dies
Stars and Stripes - Washington,DC,USA
A Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Okinawa teacher died in her home Friday, officials said Tuesday. Georgiana "Pinkey" Ferry, 59, from Huron, SD, ...

TOKYO (AP) -- More than 110,000 people protested in Okinawa against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.

Publishers of history textbooks were ordered in December to modify sections that said the Japanese army -- faced with an impending U.S. invasion in 1945 -- handed out grenades to residents on Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans.

The amendment order came amid moves by Tokyo to soften brutal accounts of Japanese wartime conduct, but triggered immediate condemnation from residents and academics.

"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered," Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima told a crowd gathered at a park in Ginowan City.

About 110,000 people -- residents and politicians -- attended the rally, and a total of 5,000 others took part in two other meetings on the nearby islands of Miyako and Ishigaki -- both part of Okinawa Prefecture -- Saturday, said Yoshino Uetsu, one of the organizers.

Saturday's rally was the largest in Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, Kyodo News agency said. In 1995, 85,000 people took part in a rally following the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl there by three American servicemen, according to the agency.

New textbooks for use in Japanese schools must be screened and approved by a government-appointed panel, which can order corrections of perceived historical inaccuracies.

The publishers of seven textbooks, slated for use in high schools next year, had been asked to make relevant changes and submit them for approval.

An official of the Education Ministry said Saturday that the ministry has no immediate plans concerning the amendment. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

Accounts of forced group suicides on Okinawa are backed by historical research, as well as testimonies from victims' relatives. Historians also say civilians were induced by government propaganda to believe U.S. soldiers would commit horrible atrocities and therefore killed themselves and their families to avoid capture.

About 500 people committed suicide, according to civic group and media reports.

In recent years, some academics have questioned whether the suicides were forced -- part of a general push by Japanese conservatives to soften criticism of Tokyo's wartime conduct.

The bloody battle in Okinawa raged from late March through June 1945, leaving more than 200,000 civilians and soldiers dead, and speeding the collapse of Japan's defenses. The U.S. occupied Okinawa from the end of World War II until 1972.

TOKYO (AP) -- A U.S. Marine who was arrested in the alleged rape of a teenage girl in southern Japan has been released, Japan's Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl on the southern island of Okinawa, triggering a nationwide furor over American troop-related crimes in Japan.

Hadnott was released Friday night as the girl dropped her criminal complaint against him, according to Ryo Fukahori, a ministry official in charge of Japan-U.S. security. As a result, the district prosecutor's office in the prefectural capital of Naha decided to drop charges against Hadnott.

Police earlier said Hadnott had admitted to investigators that he forced the girl down and kissed her, but that he denied raping her.

The Marine's Feb. 10 arrest -- as well as a series of other damaging criminal accusations against some of the 50,000 American troops based in Japan -- have inflamed popular anger at the U.S. military presence.

The U.S. military has since imposed tight new restrictions on troops, their families and civilian expatriates in Okinawa and elsewhere, limiting them to bases, workplaces and off-base housing. The military held a "day of reflection" last week to urge troops not to commit crimes.

The steps were part of a broad U.S. campaign since the alleged rape to soothe feelings as rising anger over the alleged crimes threatened to erupt into widespread protests against the American presence.

Japan also has introduced new security steps to curb crime around bases, including expanded information exchanges between the two countries, as well as installation of surveillance cameras and joint patrols of entertainment districts around bases on Okinawa.

The alleged rape case also topped the agenda during this week's Japan visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who expressed a deep regret over the incident and said she hoped the case will not harm the countries' ties.

Rice was in Tokyo on the third and last leg of an Asian tour that has been dominated by the North Korea issue. She came to Japan to quell outrage over the alleged rape, which might complicate U.S.-Japan cooperation.

NAHA -- A passenger was found missing after a ferry he had boarded arrived at a port here from Nagoya on Monday, local coast guard officials said.

At around 8:45 a.m. on Monday, a crewmember of the 16,000-ton Hiryu made an emergency call to the headquarters of the local coast guard, reporting that one of its 28 passengers was missing.

The 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters dispatched 18 patrol boats and five aircraft to search for the man, suspecting that he had plunged into the sea. The missing passenger was identified on the ferry's passengers list as Goro Ishii, 70, from Otowa, Aichi Prefecture.

Crewmembers noticed that he was missing when they collected ticket stubs from disembarking passengers at the Port of Naha. The missing passenger's stub was subsequently found in the cabin of the vessel.

NAHA -- A police sergeant has been arrested for threatening to kill a woman by sending her e-mail messages from his mobile phone.

Masaharu Fukuchi, 49, a sergeant at Ishikawa Police Station in Okinawa Prefecture, is accused of intimidation.

Fukuchi has denied the allegations, saying, "I was drunk and don't remember threatening her."

Okinawa Prefectural Police were apologetic about the incident. "We deeply apologize to prefectural citizens and will strive to recover the public's confidence in us," said Shiho Toma, a senior officer at the prefectural police's inspection office.

In the specific cases for which the suspect was arrested, Fukuchi sent a woman e-mail messages saying he would kill her on 14 separate occasions between the afternoon of Jan. 10 and the morning of Jan. 11. One of the messages was apparently sent while he was on duty.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Investigators suspect that Fukuchi sent the woman similar messages on about 60 occasions since Nov. 28 last year. On a few other occasions, he allegedly even called her and said, "I will kill you."

Police have found no link between the police sergeant and the woman, and they suspect that Fukuchi had mistaken her for an acquaintance.

NAHA -- The ruling coalition lost a majority in the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly in Sunday's election.

Opposition forces increased their strength by taking advantage of the growing public criticism of the new medical system which has increased the financial burden of senior citizens.

The results could also have a huge impact on the government's plan to relocate the Futenma Air Station to an area near the U.S. forces' Camp Schwab in Nago. Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima supports the plan with some conditions attached while opposition parties are against it.

The Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and independent conservative members won 22 seats in the 48-seat assembly, far short of their pre-election strength of 27.

The opposition bloc comprising of the Social Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, Okinawa Shakai Taishuto and other parties secured 26 seats.

NAHA -- Two sons of U.S. servicemen stationed in Okinawa have been arrested over the robbery of a taxi, police said.

Arrested were the 15-year-old son of a U.S. Marine, whose address remains unknown, and the 16-year-old son of a U.S. airman living in the city of Okinawa.

Police accuse the teens of stealing a box containing about 5,400 yen in cash near the driver's seat of the taxi when they got out on a road in Okinawa at about 10:15 p.m. on March 16.

NAGO, Okinawa -- A U.S. Marine Corps corporal was arrested Monday after he broke into a Nago home and fell asleep in a drunken slumber, police said.

Corp. Sean Jake, stationed at Camp Schwab in Nago, was arrested for trespassing.

The 21-year-old Marine denies the allegations, but his arrest comes at a time when anti-American sentiment in Okinawa is high following the arrest last weekend of another Marine accused of raping a schoolgirl.

"I don't remember a thing," police quoted Jake as saying.

Police said they received a call from a Nago woman early Monday, saying that there was "a foreign stranger sleeping in my house." Officers rushed to the scene and arrested the Marine.

They are currently questioning him about how he got into the house. He did not cause any damage. The house he was allegedly found in is close to Camp Schwab.

OKINAWA, Okinawa -- The son of a U.S. Air Force captain stationed at Kadena Air Base has been arrested for bashing and raping a young Japanese woman, police said.

Kevin Parks, 21, an unemployed dependant living on Kadena, was arrested for rape resulting in injury.

Police said the American admits to the allegations.

Police said Parks was in a bar in the city of Okinawa early on the morning of Oct. 1 when he smashed a 22-year-old waitress in the face with a beer bottle so she couldn't resist him as he raped her.

Witness reports led Okinawa Prefectural Police to Kadena and they asked the American to come in for questioning on Tuesday. He admitted to the allegations and was arrested, police said. He had apparently originally been planning to return to the United States on Wednesday.

NAHA -- United States Consul General in Naha Kevin Maher told the Mainichi Saturday that U.S. military authorities would continue the investigation into claims a U.S. Marine raped a local schoolgirl, even though the suspect has been released by police.

Maher said that Staff Sgt. Tyrone Hadnott is being held on a U.S. military base in Okinawa.

Maher said that if Japanese authorities decided to waive their right to prosecute Hadnott, U.S. military authorities would investigate the allegations against the 38-year-old Marine and punish him if necessary.

Hadnott was arrested Feb. 10 for the rape of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, but released without charges on Friday night after the alleged victim decided not to seek charges.

Hadnott had repeatedly denied ever trying to rape the schoolgirl.

Hadnott's arrest sparked a furor in Okinawa, which has a huge U.S. military presence and sex crimes by U.S. military personnel have periodically occurred in the past.

U.S. military authorities responded to the arrest by imposing a curfew, while Japan set up surveillance cameras around U.S. bases in the southernmost prefecture.

U.S. forces in Japan imposed a 24-hour curfew on Wednesday on a total of 25,000 servicemen living on bases in Okinawa Prefecture and the Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The curfew will be effective for an indefinite period of time.

The move comes on the heels of a recent spate of scandals involving U.S. servicemen, including the alleged rape by a Marine of a teenage girl in Chatan, Okinawa Prefecture, and the trespassing by a drunken Marine into the home of a woman in Nago in the prefecture.

"We are grateful that U.S. forces have decided to take tough measures," said a Japanese government official. Both the Japanese and U.S. governments plan to come up with measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents as soon as possible.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the curfew went into effect at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, prohibiting U.S. servicemen from entering entertainment districts and limiting their places of activities to bases, workplaces, schools and medical institutions.

U.S. servicemen living off-base are only allowed to commute from their home to U.S. military facilities.

The curfew order was issued late on Tuesday night and will continue for an indefinite period of time as long as it does not interfere with military activities, according to the top U.S. forces official in Okinawa.

U.S. forces have declared Friday, Feb. 22, as "a day of reflection" and instructed all servicemen stationed in Japan to reconsider their attitude and behavior as military personnel.

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese police arrested a U.S. marine Monday for allegedly raping a Japanese schoolgirl in southern Japan, a police official said.

Police officers arrested Tyrone Luther Hadnott, a 38-year-old marine of Camp Courtney in Okinawa Prefecture for the alleged rape of the 14-year-old girl, an official of the Okinawa Police said.

The suspect, whose hometown was not immediately available, allegedly raped the girl in a parked car in a town in central Okinawa Sunday evening, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing policy.

Okinawa police took custody of the marine for investigation, he said.

Under a mutual security pact, the United States has about 50,000 troops deployed around Japan.

Most of them are based on Okinawa and tensions there over troop-related crime and disputes over land use are endemic.

In 1995, the rape of a schoolgirl in Okinawa by three American servicemen sparked large-scale protests.

Officials with the U.S. Forces in Japan could not immediately confirm the case.