Japan Busts US Sailor in Murder-Robbery

Navy man charged in cabbie's stabbing outside Tokyo
Posted Apr 3, 2008 6:05 AM CDT
Japan Busts US Sailor in Murder-Robbery
An elderly woman strolls past the U.S. Navy Yokosuka base, the headquarters of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo.   (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa, FILE)

Japanese police arrested a US sailor today on suspicion of stabbing a taxi driver to death and then robbing him, Reuters reports. The 22-year-old Nigerian national serving in the American Navy was already in US custody on charges of desertion. The American ambassador to Japan was forced to apologize for yet another US serviceman implicated in a crime in recent months.

The arrest comes in the wake of a number of rape and sexual assault charges lodged against American troops stationed in Japan, particularly Okinawa. Recent large protests, uncommon in Japan, have sought to block expansion of America's military presence in the country. Currently a bill to fund US bases is facing gridlock in the Diet.

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