A US sailor was sentenced to life in prison today for killing a Japanese woman (56) earlier this year.
Seaman William Reese (22), who had been based aboard the USS Kitty Hawkaircraft carrier, was convicted by a court in the port city of Yokohama of robbing Yoshie Sato and beating her to death on January 3rd.
The verdict comes at an awkward time in US-Japan relations, as Tokyo and Washington tried to reach a deal to reorganise US bases in Japan in an effort to make the US military more flexible.
The two sides have agreed a basic deal, under which 8,000 US marines will be relocated from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam, and the marines' base at Futenma on the island will be shifted to a less heavily populated area.
Nearly 50,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan under the allies' bilateral security treaty, and issues of crime, pollution and noise associated with the US bases make them highly unpopular with local communities.