U.S. Marines Start to Leave Japan, Decades Behind Schedule

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U.S. Marines Start to Leave Japan, Decades Behind Schedule

The American base on Okinawa has relocated 105 Marines. But an agreement to move 9,000 in total is colliding with the perceived threat from a rising China.


U.S. Marines during training last month in Okinawa, Japan.

By Martin Fackler Photographs by Chang W. Lee
Reporting from Camp Foster and Naha, Okinawa
Feb. 18, 2025
Updated 8:03 a.m. ET

Before Christmas, a contingent of 105 U.S. Marines who would have been sent to Okinawa were redirected to a new base on the United States territory of Guam instead. The small reshuffling marked a major milestone: This was the first time the Marines cut their head count on Okinawa as part of a deal between Washington and Tokyo to shrink an oversized American military presence on the Pacific island that dates back to World War II.

Under the agreement, 9,000 Marines — just under half the force currently on the island — are eventually supposed to leave. But their departure is already two decades behind the original schedule and may not happen for more than a decade to come, until construction of replacement bases is completed.


U.S. Marines simulating rescuing an injured pilot left in enemy territory during training in Okinawa.

Their redeployment was agreed to in a deal signed 12 years ago, the result of negotiations and renegotiations going back to 1995, when three U.S. servicemen raped an Okinawan schoolgirl. That crime touched off mass protests that forced the United States and Japan to agree on shrinking the American bases, which were built after the United States stormed Okinawa during a bloody battle in 1945.

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Shops at the American Village in Mihama, Okinawa, where many young people on the island like to hang out.

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Kiuko Notoya contributed reporting.

Martin Fackler is the acting Tokyo bureau chief for The Times. More about Martin Fackler

Chang W. Lee has been a photographer for The Times for 30 years, covering events throughout the world. He is currently based in Seoul. Follow him on Instagram @nytchangster. More about Chang W. Lee