Akino Miyagi poses with U.S. military vehicles in northern Okinawa in this undated photo posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. (X)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A protester opposed to the U.S. military presence on Okinawa has been indicted on charges of making threats and brandishing a metal object resembling a pipe bomb in May outside the U.S. Consulate in Naha.
Akino Miyagi, 45, of Higashi village, was arrested May 15 in Urasoe city with a metal pipe that had tape covering one end, Okinawa prefectural police said at the time. Police alleged that she threatened to throw the device when they tried to take it from her.
Miyagi was charged Friday in Naha District Court with obstructing police and violating Japan’s explosives control act, a spokesman for the Naha District Prosecutors Office said by phone Tuesday. If convicted, she faces a maximum of four years in prison or a $6,700 fine.
Miyagi denied the charges in a post Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I didn’t raise my voice or say I’d throw it,” she wrote. “I wonder how the prosecutors are going to prove it in court without any videos or recordings.”
The environmentalist has dedicated her life to solving the “U.S. military waste issue in Yambaru,” the post said. Miyagi did not respond to a Facebook message on Tuesday seeking comment; she does not accept direct messages on X.
Yambaru is a subtropical forest in northern Okinawa that includes a protected national park. It is also home to Marine Corps base Camp Gonsalves and its Jungle Warfare Training Center, where Marines learn “jungle survival skills, tactical rope suspension techniques, and jungle warfare tactics,” according to the center’s website.
Akino Miyagi was indicted Oct. 27, 2023, for allegedly threatening police with a metal object feared to be a pipe bomb during a May protest outside the U.S. Consulate on Okinawa. (X)
Miyagi — a writer and self-described butterfly scientist — was accused in December by the Okinawa Defense Bureau of trying to grab a rifle from a U.S. Marine whose squad wandered into her village from the training center.
According to her account on X of her May arrest, Miyagi arrived at the consulate wearing a T-shirt that read, “A present to America, a commemorative gift made with gunpowder from U.S. military waste in the World Heritage site in Yambaru,” Miyagi wrote four days after the incident. She brandished the pipe, which police described as a hollow, spent U.S. military flare filled with bullets.
“If you use force, I will throw it,” she said to police, the prosecutor’s office spokesman said.
Some government officials in Japan may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
The indictment accuses Miyagi of posing “a threat to the lives and bodies of the police officers,” the spokesman said. No one was hurt in the incident.
No trial date has been set, a spokeswoman for Naha District Court said by phone Tuesday.
Prosecutors on Friday also charged Miyagi with three counts of violating Japan’s traffic laws for obstructing U.S. military vehicles outside the Northern Training Area in 2022 on March 21, Aug. 2 and Oct. 21, the spokesman said.
No charges were filed following the alleged incident involving the Marine’s rifle in December.
