Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki speaks to reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, Aug. 7, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

Okinawa’s governor has delivered official protest letters to two Japanese government officials over the latest sexual assault allegation against a U.S. service member.

Gov. Denny Tamaki signed and personally delivered the letters to Manabu Miyagawa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, and Shinya Ito, director of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, on Thursday in Naha city.

Okinawa Prefectural Police on Jan. 8 accused a Marine of injuring a woman during a sexual assault in November and forwarded the case to local prosecutors.

“It is very regrettable and causes strong anger that this kind of crime happened five times in one year,” Tamaki wrote in the letter, a copy of which was provided to Stars and Stripes.

Following a closed-door meeting with both officials, Tamaki told reporters the prefecture has a “sense of crisis” about such incidents, a spokesman for Okinawa’s Military Base Affairs Division said Friday by phone.

“I spoke about this to both parties during the closed meeting,” Tamaki said, according to the spokesman. “I think sharing this sense of crisis will lead to the prevention of reoccurrences.”

Tamaki requested in the letter that the prefecture receive notice of future incidents “as soon as possible,” and asked the U.S. and Japanese governments to provide compensation to the woman in the most recent case.

The allegation is the latest in a string of similar accusations that have caused friction between U.S. and Japanese authorities.

In December, a Japanese court sentenced Senior Airman Brennon Washington to five years in prison with hard labor for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl a year earlier. He has appealed the verdict.

A Marine lance corporal was indicted in June of attempted sexual assault. In September, another Marine lance corporal was charged with injuring a woman during a sexual assault.

The allegations prompted U.S. Forces Japan to amend liberty rules for all troops in Japan.

In a statement posted online in July, then-USFJ commander Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp announced a new “forum of cooperation” with the Japanese and Okinawan governments and the Okinawan community. He also called for joint U.S. and Japanese police patrols.

Tamaki in the letter cast doubt on the effectiveness of these measures and urged more restrictions on service members.

“I think that it is necessary to verify how the preventative measures announced by the U.S. military have been applied and to share those results in a new forum,” he wrote.

Three consultative meetings have been held so far between “relevant U.S. and Japanese leaders” to discuss the forum and patrols, Air Force Capt. Danny Rangel, a USFJ spokesman, told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday.

“We’ve made strides in strengthening our partnership, though the issue of joint patrols remains a critical area of discussion, with varying perspectives on its feasibility and effectiveness,” he said.

The most recent meeting between the U.S. military and the prefecture happened in November, said the division spokesman. He declined to say who represented each side in those meetings.

Tamaki also plans to meet with Marine Corps Installations Pacific commander Maj. Gen. Brian Wolford, but a date has yet to be set, the spokesman said.

Some Japanese government officials speak to the press only on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman from the installations command, Maj. Brett Dornhege-Lazaroff, confirmed Friday by email that the meeting is being coordinated but declined to provide additional details.