The protest was held on Friday evening hours after the Naha District Court sentenced an American Air Force serviceman to five years in prison for the kidnapping and sexual assault of an under-16 Japanese girl in the city of Okinawa in December last year.
The demonstrators expressed their outrage, rejecting sexual assault by US military personnel, arguing that the short-term imprisonment sentence would not compensate for the victim's trauma.
The protesters also censured the Japanese government and police for not sharing relevant data regarding the case with the prefectural government in Okinawa, saying that the Foreign Ministry should be held accountable.
The Japanese people have long been affected by the criminal activities of US military forces in their country.
Statistics published by the Okinawa Prefecture government indicate that the authorities in this prefecture have recorded around 6,200 criminal cases concerning US military staff and their affiliates in Okinawa from 1972 to 2023. Murder, rape, and robbery are among the grave crimes, which have been committed by the US forces in this prefecture.
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