Carter Apologizes To Japan Over Murdering 20 Year-Old Girl
MEP: US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has extended “sincere” apologies to his Japanese counterpart after an American working at a U.S. military base in Japan was arrested over the suspicion of killing a Japanese woman.
In a phone conversation with Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, Carter “conveyed his sadness and his regret” and “expressed his sympathies to the people of Japan,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement on Sunday.
The case in Okinawa has sparked a protest from Tokyo and could add to resentment of the large U.S. military presence on the island, where Japanese have long been upset by crimes committed by Americans. It also is likely to stir anti-U.S. sentiment as President Barack Obama visits Japan next week.
This comes as Carter and Nakatani were scheduled to discuss the security ties between the two countries when they meet next month during the upcoming Shangri-La Dialogue.
A 32-year-old American working at the base on Okinawa admitted to abandoning the corpse of a 20-year-old Japanese woman but did not comment about whether he had killed her, an Okinawa police spokesman said earlier this week.
Following the incident, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida summoned US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and handed her an official letter of protest.
“It is extremely regrettable that the very cruel and atrocious case occurred,” Kishida told Kennedy, according to Japanese media.
