U.S. Sailor's Murder Case Reignites Anger in Japan

U.S. sailor Olatunbosun Ugbogu, center, escorted by U.S. military personnel, arrive at Yokosuka police station in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Thursday, April 3, 2008. Japanese police arrested the 22-year-old crew member of the Yokosuka-based ship USS Cowpens Thursday in the stabbing death of Japanese taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi near an American naval base outside Tokyo last month, officials said. Ugbogu was arrested on charges of murder and robbery after Japan and the U.S. agreed on his handover under a bilateral security pact, a local police official said on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to talk to the media. (AP)

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By Blaine Harden

Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 4, 2008; Page A15

TOKYO, April 3 -- Anger with the American military presence in Japan flared again Thursday with the arrest of a U.S. Navy seaman, charged with killing and robbing a taxi driver near Tokyo.

Olatunbosun Ugbogu, 22, a Nigerian citizen serving in the U.S. Navy, used a kitchen knife to stab a 61-year-old cabdriver in the shoulder March 19 and then ran off without paying his $190 fare, according to police. The driver, Masaaki Takahashi, bled to death.

Police said Ugbogu, whom they described as a permanent resident of the United States, confessed to the killing during questioning Thursday.

The murder and arrest come at a time of rising discontent in Japan -- a country with one of the world's lowest crime rates -- over the much-publicized behavior of some of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel based here.

In February, during a visit to Japan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologized for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine on Okinawa. Prosecutors have since dropped those charges because the girl withdrew her complaint, but the military is still investigating.

Since the gang rape of a 12-year-old girl on Okinawa in 1995 by three U.S. servicemen, a crime that sparked massive public protests, a special agreement between the United States and Japan has allowed for the handover of accused service members to police before an indictment.

Ugbogu was transferred to Japanese authorities Thursday under that agreement, police said. His case is the fifth time such a handover has occurred, according to the Kyodo News agency.

As they have before, Japanese officials insisted Thursday that the American government rein in its troops. "We demand the U.S. take concrete measures so that crimes like this are never repeated," said Ryoichi Kabaya, mayor of Yokosuka, a city south of Tokyo where the murder was committed and where a U.S. naval base is located.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura summoned U.S. Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer and urged the American government to do something about discipline. Schieffer also met with the mayor of Yokosuka.

Later, Schieffer released a statement calling the killing "a shock and outrage to all those who believe in a civilized society." He promised to help Japanese authorities "in any way possible so that the murderer of Mr. Takahashi can be brought to justice."