Nago city in northern Okinawa has lodged a formal protest after a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter made a precautionary landing near a youth baseball practice last week, prompting players to evacuate the field.

Eight crew members were rescued unharmed over the weekend after a work boat capsized at the construction site of a new U.S. Marine Corps airfield in northern Okinawa, Japan’s coast guard said.

Three military exercises beginning this week in the Indo-Pacific region show the United States is serious about defending its interests against increasing aggression from China and North Korea, according to a defense analyst.

U.S. Marines and their Japanese counterparts practiced seizing an enemy-held town during the culmination of a three-week exercise aimed at strengthening the allies’ defense of remote islands.

A Japanese court on Thursday upheld a U.S. Marine’s conviction for strangling and attempting to sexually assault a woman at her Okinawa home in May 2024.

The U.S. military will not resume solo police patrols in Okinawa’s nightlife districts until investigators complete their review of an incident in which a military police officer slammed an American civilian to the ground outside a bar last year, a senior Marine commander said.

Stormy weather reshapes US-Japan island defense training in East China Sea

Elementary school students on this Marine Corps base were asked to bring their own water to class Tuesday after a pipe break rendered taps undrinkable.

The Coast Guard’s newest fast-response cutter, named for a reserve petty officer who died on 9/11, is expected to join three others on Guam this summer, the service announced Friday.

Twelve Vietnam War veterans will return to the country March 1-8 to tour key battle sites in Hanoi, Da Nang, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City.

A U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey remained parked Wednesday at a civilian airport in northern Japan after making a precautionary landing earlier this week, Japanese defense officials said.

Japan plans to deploy upgraded air defense missiles on its westernmost island — within sight of Taiwan — by 2031, a move that underscores Tokyo’s growing concern over regional security and tensions with China.

U.S. Marines and their Japanese counterparts have kicked off a series of amphibious exercises aimed at strengthening island defense amid increasing regional tensions.

A recent Pentagon statement that it will not return Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Japan until it provides an alternate runway of similar length is not a change from the original agreement, according to Japan’s defense minister.

U.S. Marines, airmen and Japanese emergency responders practiced their skills and response times through a simulated aircraft crash at Camp Kinser on Okinawa on Thursday, including simulated casualties nearby.

Japan’s army will not fly its V-22 Ospreys to Okinawa during the ongoing Iron Fist exercise with the U.S. Marine Corps, according to the Japan Ground Staff.

The Air Force has delayed delivery of the 18th Wing’s first F-15EX Eagle II fighters to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, according to the wing.

A city in central Okinawa found levels of “forever chemicals” well below Japan’s legal limit in water sampled from a manhole oozing white foam near a Marine Corps airfield last month.

After a five-year effort, the U.S. Army on Okinawa said it has eradicated an invasive ant species at its port in the island prefecture’s capital city.

Commercial fishermen on a remote Japanese island say the Japan coast guard has urged them to avoid fishing near the disputed Senkaku Islands ever since November comments by their prime minister increased tensions between Beijing and Tokyo.

A U.S. Marine who fell overboard into the Caribbean Sea while deployed on the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima was declared dead this week after a three-day search, according to the Marine Corps.

A Navy Seabee unit with historic ties to Okinawa has returned to the island to support exercises and building projects across the Indo-Pacific region.

Four Chinese coast guard vessels entered Japan’s territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands this week, marking the second such incursion this year amid ongoing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.

A new report from a U.S. foreign policy think tank is urging Washington to renegotiate a decades-old agreement with Japan to reduce the Marine Corps presence on Okinawa, arguing that the deal should be reversed to strengthen deterrence against China.

Brig. Gen. Ryan Hoyle took over the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Brig. Gen. Robert Brodie during a Friday ceremony at Camp Courtney. Hoyle also became deputy commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force.

A U.S. airman convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on Okinawa is facing a civil trial after objecting to a court order requiring him to pay the victim about $17,500.

Local leaders lodged complaints this week after U.S. forces carried out parachute training at Kadena Air Base for the first time since the primary offshore training site reopened late last year.

Japan’s highest court has upheld a U.S. airman’s conviction for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl just over two years ago on Okinawa.

A South Korean military transport plane bound for Saudi Arabia made an emergency landing at a Japanese airport on Okinawa after the crew detected engine trouble, according to South Korea’s air force.

Ginowan city in central Okinawa will test its water for “forever chemicals” after residents discovered a white foam oozing from a manhole near a Marine Corps airfield on Thursday.

A Japanese court has awarded about $16.3 million to Okinawans affected by Kadena Air Base aircraft noise, the latest ruling in a long-running series of lawsuits over noise from U.S. military airfields on the island.

Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Japan, both headquartered at Camp Courtney on Okinawa, according to a Defense Department announcement.

U.S. and Japanese naval forces are teaming up again in February for an expanded version of annual exercises around Japan, especially in the island chain that includes Okinawa.

Powerful wind generated by helicopter blades forced a teacher’s umbrella open and knocked her off balance, leading to a fatal fall last year at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, according to an Air Force accident investigation. www.stripes.com/branches/air...

Two Marines recently provided first aid to a Japanese man in his 80s who was choking while experiencing a seizure at a ramen shop in northern Okinawa.

The South Korean air force’s demonstration team, the Black Eagles, will make a refueling stop on Okinawa for the first time next week, three months after Japan canceled a similar request.

Two U.S. service members on a nighttime scuba dive were rescued from a rocky cliff on an island off Okinawa’s central coast over the weekend, according to Japan’s coast guard.

A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer and a survey vessel sailed through the Taiwan Strait over the weekend, the first such crossing confirmed this year.

U.S. Marines on a six-month deployment to Okinawa spent more than a month in South Korea rehearsing urban warfare, working with drones and skiing in the dark with their South Korean counterparts.

The Marine Corps’ only permanently deployed expeditionary brigade stood up a new headquarters company on Tuesday, aligning it with a Japanese amphibious brigade to streamline joint humanitarian and warfighting missions in the Indo-Pacific.

Japan’s defense minister, on his first visit to Okinawa in his new role, repeated a promise to reduce the U.S. military’s footprint there and expand joint exercises near Japan’s southwestern islands.

An American soldier died three weeks after he was critically injured last month in a single-vehicle vehicle crash on Okinawa, according to the U.S. Army.

Chinese coast guard vessels sailed near the Senkaku Islands 357 times last year, setting a record for the fourth year in a row amid increased tension between Beijing and Tokyo.

Japan’s military buildup in the Nansei region is sending a message to an increasingly aggressive China that it will defend its economic interests and its people, according to defense experts recently.

A U.S. Marine Corps vehicle collided with an Okinawa driving school sedan on the Okinawa Expressway over the weekend, injuring the driving instructor, according to the Marines and police.

U.S. Forces Japan has denied Okinawa prefecture’s requests to test for so-called “forever chemicals” at three U.S. military bases, citing insufficient evidence that the facilities are sources of contamination.

A South Korean defense technology firm will supply advanced cockpit displays for the U.S. Air Force’s new F-15EX Eagle II fighter jet and South Korea’s F-15K Slam Eagle under a new deal with Boeing.

Military families, veterans and Defense Department civilians in Japan and South Korea will soon have a new option for mental health care with the opening of nonprofit clinics on U.S. bases, according to the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.

Okinawa authorities discovered a U.S.-made bomb believed to date to World War II during an airport safety survey on a southern Japanese island, the first ordnance found in a series of inspections launched after an explosion last year.

The Marine Corps has reopened a small island airfield off Okinawa’s coast after two years of repairs, restoring a key training site and easing pressure on Kadena Air Base, where parachute jumps had drawn local opposition.