US sailor arrested in Japan: Reports

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese police arrested a 20-year-old US sailor on Monday for allegedly breaking into an elderly woman's property while drunk, reports said, despite a night-time curfew.

It is the latest in a series of arrests of US servicemen in Japan, where another drunken sailor, 24, was arrested over trespassing only a week ago, also allegedly breaking the curfew imposed last year after the gang rape of a Japanese woman.

Manuel Silva, who serves aboard the US aircraft carrier George Washington, admitted breaking into the grounds of a 72-year-old woman's house in the port city of Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Kyodo News and Jiji Press reported.

But Silva, drunk at the time of the arrest, "spoke nonsense" to police, claiming he entered the property because he was called in by a police officer, the Yomiuri daily said.