Anti-U.S. military base protester Akino Miyagi is arrested in front of the U.S. Consulate in Naha, Okinawa, Feb. 16, 2024, in this photo posted to her Facebook account. (Facebook)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese police last week arrested a protester who opposes the U.S. military presence on the island, alleging she interrupted a U.S. Consulate event at a Chatan hotel.
Akino Miyagi, 45, of Higashi village, appeared at the Independence Day event sponsored by the U.S. Consulate in Naha, shouting, “U.S. military grenade!” in front of the ballroom, the Okinawa Times reported Saturday, citing an unidentified guest at the event.
Miyagi was taken into custody at 6:27 p.m. Friday on suspicion of breaking into the hotel without just cause in the town’s Mihama district, a spokesman for Okinawa Prefectural Police said by phone Monday.
A person affiliated with the hotel reported “a woman came into the hotel with something made of metal” at 5:35 p.m., the spokesman said.
Miyagi was still in police custody Monday afternoon at the Okinawa Police Station, the spokesman said. She is admitting the allegation, he said.
“We know that an event held by the U.S. Consulate was taking place at the hotel, but we cannot say how it is related to the suspect,” the spokesman said.
Police declined to provide details about the metal object, citing ongoing investigations.
“She might face additional charges,” the spokesman said.
Some government officials in Japan speak to the media on condition of anonymity as a requirement of their employment.
Miyagi’s case was submitted to the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office on Sunday, the spokesman said.
“We can confirm there was an attempt to disrupt a Consulate Naha event with the threat of violence, and that a suspect was arrested,” Nicole Lima Nucelli, spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate General on Okinawa, said by email Monday. She refrained from commenting further, saying that doing so may impede an investigation.
Anti-U.S. base protester Akino Miyagi poses with police vehicles on Okinawa in this undated photo posted to her Facebook account. (Facebook)
Neither Nucelli, the police spokesman nor a hotel representative reached by phone Monday would identify the hotel where the incident occurred.
Miyagi was indicted last October on charges of making threats and brandishing a metal object resembling a pipe bomb outside the consulate in May.
She was also accused in December 2022 by the Okinawa Defense Bureau of trying to grab a rifle from a U.S. Marine whose squad wandered into her village from the Jungle Warfare Training Center at Camp Gonsalves. No charges were filed from that incident.
“Miyagi has been on trial for about three years for other charges,” a prosecutors office’s spokesman said by phone Monday. “The charges of October last year will be added to this, but no court date has been set for her next trial.”
