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.

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."

HIROSHIMA -- Four U.S. Marine Corps members accused of gang raping a Hiroshima teenager are certain to be handed over to local authorities, police said Monday.

Hiroshima Prefectural Police have taken out a warrant for the arrest for gang rape for each of the four Marines and are preparing to take the men into custody.

Under the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), U.S. military authorities in Japan have the right to hold a U.S. service member accused of a crime committed while off-duty until they are formally charged, but are obligated to look favorably on Japanese requests for suspects to be handed over before an indictment is made.

It is likely that the four suspected gang rapists will be handed over to Japanese police in this case.

Police said on Oct. 14 the four Marines stationed at Iwakuni dragged a 19-year-old Hiroshima woman into a car, drove to a secluded part of the A-bombed city and then took turns raping her inside the vehicle. The teenager has also accused the four of taking money out of her purse and investigators are looking into the claim.

The same four Marines are also accused of bashing another woman later the same day. When Hiroshima Prefectural Police alerted military authorities, the four Marines were taken into custody on base and remain there now.

Under SOFA, U.S. military authorities keep in custody any service personnel suspected of a crime until they are actually charged with it. However, after three U.S. servicemen gang raped an elementary schoolgirl in Okinawa in 1995, Tokyo and Washington agreed the U.S. would look favorably on any request by Japanese authorities to take into custody accused service members before they had been indicted.

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.

HIROSHIMA -- Police will demand that four U.S. Marines accused of raping a woman here be handed over to their custody under the Japan-U.S. Status-of-Forces Agreement, officials said.

Hiroshima Prefectural Police have already confirmed the identities of the four Marines stationed at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and are preparing to apply to a local court for arrest warrants for the suspects.

The four, whose identities were not immediately disclosed, are currently being detained at the base.

The 19-year-old woman has filed a criminal complaint with prefectural police, accusing the four of sexually assaulting her in a car in Hiroshima in the early hours of Oct. 14, investigators said.

The woman told investigators that she was formerly a part-time employee at the base.

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.

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.

NAHA -- A U.S. Marine Corps private has been arrested for flashing his private parts at a woman here, police said.

Malik Bashet, 26, a private first class stationed at Kadena Air Base, was arrested for indecent exposure.

The Marine denies the allegations, saying he was only urinating.

Police said that the Marine pulled his trousers down past his thighs and exposed himself to a 28-year-old woman walking through the city of Okinawa on Friday. The woman alerted the police and an officer arrived on the scene and arrested the U.S. military member.

Police said the Marine was drunk at the time of his arrest.

OKINAWA -- A week after a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by U.S. Marine Tyrone Luther Hadnott, U.S. military personnel on the streets of Okinawa were still discussing the attack, slamming Hadnott's conduct.

Around the U.S. military's Kadena base shortly after 10 p.m. on Friday, neon signs lit up bars and night-clubs frequented by American soldiers. Inside one bar whose pumping music could be heard on the street outside, a 22-year-old U.S. Air Force member who was with another soldier and two Japanese women discussed the alleged attack.

The 22-year-old started off by saying he wanted people to know that air force members were different from Marines. He said that airmen are more gentlemanly than seaman or soldiers, adding that the air force is the hardest branch of the U.S. military to enter. He seemed to be suggesting that airmen could not commit such a crime.

The airman said that the most important thing for the U.S. military in Japan was a friendly relationship with the host country, prompting him to add that the Marine had done something stupid.

Back on the street, a group of several people who were drunk, making strange noises appeared. One, describing himself as a 23-year-old seaman, said that after the alleged crime, superiors had instructed servicemen not to do anything on the streets that stood out. He said that all of his friends had been angered by the incident.

One 32-year-old seaman also criticized Hadnott's alleged actions, saying the Marine had injured a girl who was young enough to be his daughter and should pay for the crime. The seaman said there were those in the military who sympathized with the victim, but none who sympathized with Hadnott.

Shortly after 1 a.m. there were still a few servicemen on the street, but the manager of one nightclub catering to U.S. military personnel said the crime had affected business.

"It's the weekend just after payday, but there's less than half the usual number of people on the streets," he said.