U.S. sailor held over killing of Japanese man

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Authorities have arrested a U.S. sailor on suspicion of robbery and murder in the death of a Japanese taxi driver.

The U.S. military handed him over Thursday at Yokosuka Naval Base, south of Tokyo.

A Yokosuka police spokesman identified the sailor as Olatunbosun Ogbogu, a 22-year-old Nigerian national.

Taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi, 61, was found dead March 19 of stab wounds to the neck about a mile from the base in Yokosuka.

The presence of U.S. in Japan has sparked controversy this year amid reports linking service members to crimes.

In March, the U.S. military said it plans to court martial four Marines accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in Hiroshima last year.

Authorities are also investigating allegations that a member of the U.S. military raped a Philippine woman on the island of Okinawa.

And a U.S. Marine was detained in the rape of a 14-year-old girl until the girl dropped the allegations.

As Ogbogu was arrested, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, met with Japan's foreign minister.

"We're dealing with human beings that do criminal acts from time to time," Schieffer told reporters afterward. "And I think justice is going to be done in this matter because we've been able to work so closely together." Watch the U.S. ambassador to Japan discuss the case »

The U.S. military presence in Japan has at times bred resentment among locals, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents.

Anti-American sentiments boiled over in 1995 after three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl.

Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women. E-mail to a friend

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