accused of sexually assaulting a woman<\/a> on Okinawa last month.<\/p>\nThe Naha Public Prosecutors Office on Thursday dismissed allegations against the soldier of sexual assault and bodily injury, a spokesman said by phone Friday. He did not address the office\u2019s reasoning.
<\/p>\n
The soldier \u2014 an unidentified man in his 20s \u2014 is assigned to Echo Battery, 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Kadena Air Base, the Army said in May. <\/p>\n
Okinawa Prefectural Police alleged he sexually assaulted a woman older than 18 and hurt her arm somewhere outdoors in April. Police said the two knew each other.
<\/p>\n
The soldier was also accused of hitting a roadside barrier while fleeing the scene in a car and not reporting the crash.
<\/p>\n
Police forwarded the case to prosecutors on May 22.
<\/p>\n
The soldier was fined about $125 by the Naha Summary Court on Thursday for violating the Road Traffic Act, a Naha District Court spokesman said by phone Friday.
<\/p>\n
Some Japanese government officials must speak to the press only on condition of anonymity.
<\/p>\n
U.S. Army Japan acknowledged email and phone inquiries from Stars and Stripes on Friday but did not immediately provide responses.<\/p>\n
A handful of sexual assault cases against U.S. service members since 2023 continue to make their way through Okinawa courts.
<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have dropped at least two other sexual assault cases alleged against service members in the past two years.
<\/p>\n
In response to the string of alleged assaults, U.S. Forces Japan imposed stricter liberty rules <\/a>in October 2024, including a ban on off-base drinking between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese prosecutors on June 11, 2026, declined to pursue a sexual assault charge against a soldier assigned to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[28918,8,1428,162,3201,748,28917],"class_list":["post-39401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-okinawa","tag-38th-air-defense-artillery-brigade","tag-japan","tag-kadena-air-base","tag-okinawa","tag-okinawa-crime","tag-okinawa-news","tag-okinawa-sexual-assault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n