Protests over US bases after Japanese woman’s murder

Tens of thousands of people gathered in sweltering heat on Japan’s Okinawa island yesterday in one of the biggest demonstrations in two decades against US military bases, following the arrest of an American suspected of murdering a local woman.

The protest marked a new low for the US and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in their relations with the island and threatens plans to move the US Marines’ Futenma air station to a less populous part of the island.

Organisers said 65,000 people attended the rally at a park in central Naha.