Japan’s Ministry of Defense plans to expand a two-year-old army base on Ishigaki Island, near Taiwan, as part of efforts to bolster defenses in the Nansei Island chain, a city official said Wednesday.

A construction vessel spilled fuel oil at the site of a future Marine Corps airfield in northern Okinawa on Thursday, marking the third such incident this year, according to Japan’s coast guard.

A fire broke out Tuesday aboard a ship towing construction materials for a new Marine Corps airfield in northern Okinawa.

Japanese troops detonated 24 suspected U.S. shells off the coast of Okinawa in the third disposal of World War II ordnance in a month.

The Air Force is investigating how an unmanned aerial vehicle rolled off a runway while taxiing Monday at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa.

A woman opposed to U.S. military presence on Okinawa was convicted in a Japanese court recently on 16 counts related to her protests the past four years, including a threat against the U.S. Consulate.

Japanese authorities are investigating a U.S. Navy sailor suspected of injuring an 87-year-old Japanese man crossing a Yokosuka city street last month, according to the city and the Navy.

Japanese police are holding Marine in custody in Iwakuni city on allegations he stole a car, drove drunk and crashed it before intruding into a man’s home last month.

A U.S. service member from Sasebo Naval Base in Japan may face assault charges based on suspicion he hit a man with a mug over the weekend, according to a local news report and a police spokesman.

A Japanese destroyer sailed through the Taiwan Strait last month, marking the second such transit by a Japanese naval vessel since September, NHK reported.