Photo/Illutration Reporters gather in front of the Naha District Court on July 12, when the trial started for a U.S. Air Force member accused of kidnapping and assaulting a minor. (Kengo Hiyoshi)

NAHA--A U.S. airman at the center of renewed friction between Okinawa Prefecture and the U.S. military pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor when his trial opened here on July 12.

“I’m innocent. I didn’t kidnap nor rape her,” Brennon R. E. Washington, a 25-year-old stationed at the U.S. Kadena Air Base, said at the Naha District Court.

According to the indictment, Washington lured the girl into a car at a park in the central part of Okinawa’s main island on Dec. 24, 2023.

He drove her to his home and engaged in nonconsensual sexual acts, knowing she was under 16 years old, the age of consent in Japan, the indictment said.

The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office indicted Washington on March 27, and the U.S. military handed him over to Japanese authorities.

However, the Okinawa prefectural government only learned about the case on June 25, when a local television reported the indictment.

Okinawa prefectural police were investigating the incident while the suspect remained in the custody of the U.S. military. Police sent papers to prosecutors concerning the case on March 11.

Washington was handed over to Naha prosecutors after the indictment under procedures spelled out in the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

But both the police and prosecutors did not inform the prefecture or the public about the case, saying they were “protecting the privacy of the victim.”

The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo protested the suspected crime to the U.S. ambassador to Japan but also did not notify the prefecture.

The central government later acknowledged the prefecture was not aware of four additional sex crime cases involving U.S. military personnel since last year.

Three of those cases did not lead to indictments. In the fourth case, a member of the U.S. Marine Corps was indicted on charges of nonconsensual sexual intercourse causing injury.

The prefectural government blasted not only the U.S. military but also the central government for its lack of disclosure.

The central government and the Okinawa prefectural police said they will improve the disclosure system concerning sex crimes connected to U.S. military personnel.

The U.S. military also did not inform the Japanese government about the cases.

The Okinawa prefectural assembly unanimously adopted a resolution that demands measures to prevent a recurrence of the crimes as well as revisions of SOFA.

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