The tiltrotor aircraft, assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, was on a routine training mission off Yakushima, an island in Kagoshima prefecture, when it went down, according to Air Force Special Operations Command.
Okinawa prefecture, where the bulk of more than 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan are located, continues to report relatively high COVID-19 numbers, while the U.S. military in South Korea reported a third week of increasing cases.
Japan reported over 59,900 new infections on Monday, its lowest daily tally in nearly three weeks, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Tokyo confirmed 10,334 new cases, its lowest daily count since 8,503 on Jan. 24 and nearly 1,900 fewer than a week prior, according to NHK and metropolitan government data.