TOKYO - Japanese police arrested a U.S. sailor Thursday in the stabbing death of a taxi driver near an American naval base outside Tokyo, fueling anger here over crimes allegedly involving U.S. troops.
Olatunbosun Ugbogu, a 22-year-old Nigerian national, was arrested on murder and robbery charges, a local police spokesman said. The spokesman said he had confessed.
Japanese officials reacted sharply to the arrest. Public anger over the American military presence is mounting after a series of allegations against U.S. servicemen in Japan, where some 50,000 American troops are based.
Ugbogu, a crew member on the USS Cowpens, is accused of stabbing 61-year-old taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi on March 19 in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo and the site of a large U.S. naval base. Police also accuse him of failing to pay the $190 taxi fare.
The police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of departmental rules, said the driver was stabbed in the shoulder with a kitchen knife and bled to death.
Ugbogu had been in U.S. custody since Navy authorities apprehended him in Tokyo on March 22 on an earlier desertion charge. Navy and Japanese authorities first questioned him about the killing after a credit card in his name was allegedly found in the victim's car.
Ugbogu was handed over to Japanese authorities under a bilateral security pact, Foreign Ministry official Takashi Ariyoshi said.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura summoned U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer on Thursday, expressing regret over the crime and urging U.S. officials to improve troop discipline.
Schieffer also met with Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya, who said he was enraged by the stabbing. "We demand the U.S. take concrete measures so that crimes like this are never repeated," he said.
In a statement, Schieffer called the murder "a shock and outrage to all those who believe in a civilized society." He promised to cooperate with Japanese authorities.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there had been a number of incidents of U.S. service members "involved in criminal or other kinds of inappropriate activities and behaviors."
"We deeply regret any of those actions. They certainly do not represent the policies of our government, they do not represent the kind of face that the United States wishes to show to Japan," Casey said.
A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a U.S. Marine in February on the southern island of Okinawa, sparking large protests. Japanese prosecutors dropped charges against the Marine after the girl withdrew her complaint; the U.S. military is still investigating.
Earlier in Yokosuka, a Japanese court convicted a U.S. sailor of robbing and fatally beating a 56-year-old Japanese woman and sentenced him to life in prison.
In an apparent move to quell public anger, the Navy imposed limits Wednesday on travel and alcohol consumption by personnel at the Yokosuka base. The limits were to last at least through Monday, said Navy Cmdr. David Waterman.
