Finance Ministry proposes 3.5-fold budget increase to pay for U.S. military realignment in Japan

Japan Press Weekly

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Finance Ministry proposes 3.5-fold budget increase to pay for U.S. military realignment in Japan

As part of Japan’s defense budget for FY 2009, the Finance Ministry in a draft budget released on December 20 proposed that about 83.8 billion yen be allotted to help in the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, which is 3.5 times larger than the previous year’s allotment.

Most of the expected increase will be used for “transferring” some of the Okinawa-based U.S. Marines to Guam. In the past, the Japanese government has paid just for the research costs for their relocation, such as for the construction of their facilities in Guam.

However, in the FY 2009 budget plan, it for the first time enumerates the costs (34.6 billion yen) to develop the infrastructure at the planned new base site in Guam.

In addition, the draft budget plan allocates 9.4 billion yen (up 4.6 billion yen from FY 2008) as costs for the construction of the new facilities offshore of U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago City, Okinawa. This includes costs for the unit relocation within the camp site (6.0 billion yen), environmental assessment (2.3 billion yen), and design of bank protection work offshore of Henoko (0.3 billion yen). No cost was claimed for the reclamation of the sea at Camp Schwab.

The amount of the “considerate (or sympathy) budget” for the U.S. forces in Japan will be cut by 15.6 billion yen from the previous year. However, this extraordinary budget will total 287.7 billion yen, up 37.6 billion yen, if the costs for pushing the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) decisions and the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan are added. - Akahata, December 22, 2008