Ex-U.S. Marine to Accept Indefinite Term for 2016 Murder in Okinawa

October 5, 2018

Naha, Okinawa Pref.- A former U.S. Marine is set to accept an indefinite prison term for a high-profile murder case in Okinawa Prefecture in 2016 that triggered fierce protests by people in the southern Japan prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. bases in the country, informed sources said Thursday.

Kenneth Shinzato, 34, will refrain from appealing the case to the Supreme Court, for which the deadline is Thursday, the sources said.

According to the ruling, issued by Naha District Court last December and upheld by the Naha branch of Fukuoka High Court last month, the murder occurred after Shinzato tried to sexually assault the female victim, 20, on a road in the city of Uruma in the night of April 28, 2016.

Shinzato, who was a civilian U.S. base worker at the time, hit the woman on the head with a stick and stabbed her several times around her neck, killing her. He later abandoned her body in a wooded area in the village of Onna.

Local police discovered her body on May 19 that year and arrested Shinzato on the same day.

Then U.S. President Barack Obama expressed his "sincerest condolences" for the victim and "deepest regrets" over the incident, at a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 25 that year, on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit in Japan.

Later that month, the U.S. military imposed a curfew on all U.S. servicemen in Okinawa until June 24 that year while ordering them not to drink alcohol outside U.S. bases. A massive protest rally was held in Okinawa in June the same year.

Following the murder case, the Japanese and U.S. governments reached a supplementary accord under the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement that governs U.S. forces in Japan. The supplementary pact, which took effect in January 2017, narrowed the scope of civilian U.S. base workers protected under SOFA. Jiji Press