President Obama Condemns Okinawa Crime As 'Inexcusable'

In a face-to-face meeting Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave expression to "strong indignation" over the death of a young Japanese woman said to have been killed by a U.S. military worker.

"As Japanese prime minister, I protested sternly to President Obama over the recent incident in Okinawa," Abe said at a joint news conference after their meeting. "I feel strong indignation about the selfish and extremely mean crime," Abe said, according to the Kyodo News Service.

After arriving at Ise-Shima, Japan, to meet the Group of Seven industrialized nations, Obama called the Okinawa crime "inexcusable" and said the United States is "committed to doing everything that we can to prevent any crimes from taking place of this sort."

The act has tapped into the deep, simmering resentment toward U.S. troops and bases in Okinawa island, which is a significant centre of the U.S. "rebalance" to Asia. It poses a threat relocate a key U.S. airbase there.

It might also derail Abe's plan for a US-Jap alliance against the Chinese.

As the two Presidents had planned to organise a one-on-one meeting early Thursday to debate the G-7 agenda, as well as the U.S.-Japan bilateral issues, the meeting got rescheduled for Wednesday night, following Obama's arrival from a three-day trip to Vietnam.

A former U.S. Marine, Kenneth Gadson, 32, got arrested May 19 in the context of the death of a woman who was missing in late April, after informing her companion that she was going out for a walk.

Gadson, a civilian contractor at Kadena Air Base, on Okinawa, confessed that he had raped and murdered the woman and dumped her body.

Police revealed that the victim had been chosen at random. About 800 people, including government officials, attended her funeral Saturday.

On Sunday, more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered at a major U.S. base on Okinawa, shouting slogans and calling for the closure of the U.S. bases.

Okinawans have always protested the noise, crime, and congestion due to the 28,000 U.S. troops on the island. Even though Okinawa accounts for just 0.6% of Japanese land, it hosts 75% of the U.S. military bases.

The Okinawa killing looms large over the important and politically sensitive three-day US Presidential visit to Japan.