Abe lodges protest over Okinawa murder

SHIMA (JAPAN)/HO CHI MINH CITY — After an adulatory welcome in Vietnam, United States President Barack Obama received a much chillier reception in Japan, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered a personal protest yesterday night over the recent arrest of a former American Marine in connection with the murder of a young Japanese woman in Okinawa island.

Mr Abe said he had lodged a “firm protest” to the US over the matter, and requested Mr Obama to take “effective” steps to prevent such recurrences.Mr Obama said the US will cooperate fully with Japan’s investigation into the case, calling the crime “appalling”.

“I extended my sincerest condolences and deepest regrets. The United States will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation and ensure justice is done under the Japanese legal system,” he said.

“We consider it inexcusable, and we are committed to doing everything that we can to prevent any crimes from taking place of this sort,” he added.

Both leaders were speaking at a joint news conference late yesterday after a meeting on the eve of a gathering of leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies.

A US civilian working on a base on Okinawa island was arrested last week in connection with the murder of a Japanese woman.

Okinawa, the site of a brutal World War II battle, hosts the bulk of US military forces in Japan and many residents resent what they see as an unfair burden.

Many also associate the bases with crime, pollution and noise. The rape of a Japanese schoolgirl by US military personnel in 1995 sparked huge anti-base demonstrations.

Both governments want to keep the incident from fanning further opposition to an agreement to relocate the US Marines’ Futenma air base to a less populous part of Okinawa, a plan first agreed upon after the 1995 rape but opposed by the island’s governor and many residents who want the base off the island entirely.

Mr Obama arrived in Shima late yesterday after a three-day visit to Vietnam that formally reset the relationship between Washington and Hanoi with the lifting of a US arms embargo.

Mr Obama is set to make an historic visit to Hiroshima, site of the world’s first atomic bombing, tomorrow, after attending the G7 summit. However, Mr Abe said he had no plans to reciprocate Mr Obama’s gesture by paying his own visit to Pearl Harbour.

Earlier, while wrapping up his visit to Vietnam, Mr Obama praised the country’s next generation of leaders for being more conscious of the environment than previous ones and urged them to “do something about” climate change.

During his final public event in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday, Mr Obama basked in the admiration of hundreds of young leaders who participated in a town hall-style event. He used a question about preserving a Vietnamese cave from development to pivot to climate change, one of his top issues as president, saying that Vietnam will be one of the countries most affected by the trend of warming temperatures and rising seas.

“That could have a huge impact on Vietnam’s ability to feed its people, on fishermen, on farmers, and it could be a really big problem if we don’t do something about it, so it’s going to be up to you to start,” said Mr Obama.

He also sought to ease growing Asian worries about the raucous US election campaign to succeed him which has been dominated by the incendiary rhetoric of Mr Donald Trump, now the Republican Party’s nominee.

“I think other people sometimes look at our election system and say ‘what a mess’,” he said. “But usually we end up doing okay because the American people are good people ... Sometimes our politics doesn’t express all the goodness of the people,” he said, without referring specifically to any of the presidential candidates.

He also repeatedly touted the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, of which export-led Vietnam will be one of the biggest beneficiaries.

The town-hall event capped Mr Obama’s historic visit to Vietnam. He spent three days in the capital of Hanoi, and in Ho Chi Minh City, meeting with government leaders and addressing the Vietnamese people in less formal encounters, such as when “people were trying to take selfies” with him as he worked out in the hotel gym. AGENCIES