"The group will comprise representatives of the relevant ministries and departments on the levels of department heads," Suga told reporters.
The decision comes a week after the arrest of 32-year-old former US Marine Kenneth Franklin on suspicion of stabbing and strangling a 20-year-old Japanese woman near US Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. The woman, Rina Shimabukuro, disappeared on April 28 and was later found dead in a forest. Franklin has reportedly admitted to committing the murder.
On Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama that Japan would implement new measures to protect the people of Okinawa.
The governor of the Okinawa prefecture, which hosts most US military bases on Japanese soil, has been fiercely opposed to US military presence on the island. Okinawa has been marred by reports of rapes of Japanese women by US servicemen, as well as the plans to relocate a military base within the prefecture which threatens to harm the local marine life as over 1.5 million square meters of the coastal belt are expected to be filled.
