Tokyo wants Obama to tackle crime issue

Japan will ask US President Barack Obama to take strict measures to prevent crime by people from US military bases after the arrest last week of a US worker in connection with the murder of a Japanese woman.

Obama will visit Japan this week for a Group of Seven nations summit and he will also make a historic visit to the city of Hiroshima, which the US military attacked with an atomic bomb in 1945.

US troops have been stationed in Japan since its World War II defeat and about 50,00 remain in various bases. Occasional crime by US personnel or civilian base workers infuriates Japanese people and often fuels call for the bases to go.