Jamel Clayton, 22, who pleaded not guilty, was accused of choking and attempting to rape a woman in her 20s last year in Okinawa, according to Kyodo News and other local media.

The Naha district court yesterday sentenced Clayton to seven years in jail for “the crime of causing injury by attempting to have non-consensual sexual intercourse”, a spokesman for the court told AFP.

Presiding judge Kazuhiko Obata described Clayton’s behaviour as “so dangerous that it could have threatened her life, and highly malicious”, Jiji Press reported.

Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison term.

Clayton’s lawyers argued that he had not used physical force against the woman but “only hugged her and left”, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported.

The defence is considering appealing the ruling, the reports said, citing Clayton’s lawyer.

Relations between the US military personnel stationed in Okinawa and the local community have long been fraught.

Last year, 80 people connected to the US military were charged with various crimes committed on the subtropical Japanese island.

This included eight serious cases, such as robbery and non-consensual sexual acts, a police officer told AFP.

The number is reportedly the highest in 30 years.

The 1995 gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers prompted calls for a rethink of the 1960 pact allowing the US to station its troops in Japan.