Japan on Wednesday lodged a protest with the United States following the alleged rape of a Japanese woman by two U.S. sailors on Okinawa, an island that long has bristled about the heavy American military presence there.

The two sailors, identified by the Associated Press as Seaman Christopher Browning and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker, of the Fort Worth Naval Air Base in Texas, were arrested Tuesday. Both are described as 23 years old.

The victim, in her 20s, was allegedly raped while walking home early Tuesday morning. The men had been drinking beforehand, Japanese media reported.

The allegation, described by Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto as "very serious," figures to complicate the long-standing and trying efforts by Tokyo and Washington to build a new Marine base on Okinawa, something island residents have fiercely protested.

With the two sailors in Okinawan police custody, a Japanese foreign ministry official summoned U.S. Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos to a meeting and asked for stricter discipline of American military personnel on the island. The incident parallels the 1995 rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl by three Americans, which prompted mass protests and remains a source of bitterness on the southern island.