Japanese protesters Sunday demonstrated against the heavy U.S. military presence on the island of Okinawa, as tensions run high after a base employee was arrested following the rape and murder of a local woman.
Some 100 people marched through the streets of downtown Tokyo, with many of them holding banners reading “no more base.”
The protest, calling for plans to create a fresh U.S. base on the southern island to be scrapped, came a week before tens of thousands on Okinawa plan to hold their own rally against the foreign military presence.
A series of crimes including rapes, assaults and hit-and-run accidents by U.S. military personnel, dependents and civilians have long sparked protests.