Police said Tuesday they have arrested an enlisted U.S. Navy sailor over the wounding of a Tokyo shop owner with a stun gun during a 10 million yen watch and jewelry robbery early this month.
Petty Officer 1st Class Rick Miller, 26, has owned up to the stickup, police said. Miller is a crew member off the U.S. Aegis cruiser Vincennes forward deployed to Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Police suspect Miller, pretending to be a customer, entered the shop in Shinjuku Ward on the evening of July 2 and assaulted the owner with the stun gun after the owner opened a showcase at his request.
Police identified Miller as the suspect in cooperation with the U.S. military's Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
After the incident, Miller hid at a friend's house in Nagoya before he was asked by Aichi Prefectural Police to come in for voluntary questioning and was later arrested, Tokyo police said.
SOFA talks eyed
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Japanese and U.S. officials may meet Thursday in Washington to try to agree by that date on a proposed review of aspects of the Status of Forces Agreement, a Pentagon source said Monday.
The review would focus on criminal procedures for U.S. military personnel accused of crimes in Japan. The two countries have been at odds over a U.S. demand to improve the rights of its military personnel so accused by allowing a U.S. government official to be present during Japanese police interrogations.
Japan has been reluctant to agree to the request, claiming the human rights of criminal suspects are fully protected.
Japan and the U.S. began talks July 2 over a review of criminal procedures under SOFA with an eye to concluding them by Thursday.