[1] Fleet Activities Yokosuka comprises 2.3 km2 (568 acres) and is located at the entrance of Tokyo Bay, 65 km (40 mi) south of Tokyo and approximately 30 km (20 mi) south of Yokohama on the Miura Peninsula in the Kantō region of the Pacific Coast in Central Honshu, Japan.

The 55 tenant commands which make up this installation support U.S. Navy Pacific operating forces, including principal afloat elements of the United States Seventh Fleet, including the only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier, USS George Washington (CVN-73), the group she heads, Carrier Strike Group Five, and Destroyer Squadron 15.

In 1860, Lord Oguri Kozukenosuke, Minister of Finance to the Tokugawa Shogunate Government, decided that "If Japan is to assume an active role in world trade, she must have proper facilities to build and maintain large seagoing vessels."

After the inspection of several sites, it was discovered that Yokosuka topographically, if on a smaller scale, resembled the port of Toulon, France.

In addition, numerous other facilities, including the headquarters of various naval units, administration buildings, military training schools, airfields, communication facilities, barracks, armories and a military hospital were established nearby in the course of its history, turning the area around the arsenal into a major fleet base.

In addition to the shipbuilding plant, the yard also had a gun factory, ordnance and supply depots, a fuel storage facility, a seaplane base, and a naval air station.

With the onset of the Korean War on 25 June 1950, Yokosuka Navy Base suddenly became very important and extremely busy.

In March 1952, the geographical boundaries of Naval Forces Far East were changed to exclude the Philippines, Marianas, Bonin and Volcano Islands.

On 1 December 2005, the U.S. Navy announced that in 2008 Kitty Hawk would be replaced by the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier George Washington.

On 25 September 2008, George Washington arrived in Yokosuka, making it the only forward-deployed, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the U.S.

One of them was the murder was committed by Seaman Olantunbosun Ugbogu, a Nigerian citizen who had joined the U.S. Navy, but had not yet received citizenship.

Ugbogu stabbed a taxi driver to death in order to avoid paying a $200 fare, which he had incurred returning from Tokyo.

[5] He had been stationed aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens (CG-63), but was absent without leave at the time of the murder and considered a deserter.

[6] Personnel and ships from the base assisted with Operation Tomodachi following and during the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima I nuclear accidents.