Japan aims to shorten pact for sharing U.S. military costs
Japan wants to shorten the duration of its bilateral agreement with the
United States on sharing the cost for hosting U.S. forces here, government
sources said Wednesday.
The move, which would shorten the term of the pact from every five years to two
or three years, may allow Tokyo to better press Washington to reduce budget
requests, they said.
The government is hoping to change the Special Measures Agreement, which will
expire in March 2006, because Japan's burden is expected to rise as a result of
a planned realignment of U.S. forces.
But analysts said Washington may be reluctant to agree, due to concerns about
instability in the budget.
Japan and the U.S. agreed at a top-level security meeting in February to start
negotiations on a new agreement since the current one is to expire.
Japan is hoping to reach agreement with the U.S. by this summer, when the
government will submit budget requests for fiscal 2006, and is aiming to gain
approval for the new agreement by the Diet in the fall.
Japan plans to demand a reduction in its burden, mainly in utility costs, the
sources said.
The current agreement, signed in 2000, has cut Japan's burden for utility costs
by 3.3 billion yen per fiscal year from the previous agreement.
The government is aiming for the same reduction this time, but the Finance
Ministry is calling for further cuts, the government sources said.
The fiscal 2005 budget allocated 237.8 billion yen on a disbursement basis for
costs to support U.S. forces stationed in Japan, down 6.3 billion yen from the
previous year.
Of that amount, Japan bears 113.8 billion yen in labor costs, 24.9 billion yen
in utility costs and 400 million yen in training relocation costs under the
Special Measures Agreement.
Also, Japan provides 68.9 billion yen for facilities improvement projects and
29.8 billion yen for social insurance of Japanese employees at U.S. bases in
accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement, which governs the operations of
U.S. forces in Japan.
Japan began sharing the costs for stationing U.S. forces in fiscal 1978 under
the so-called sympathy budget allocation, due to inflation in Japan in the
1970s.
Until now, the Special Measures Agreement has been renewed every five years. It
stipulates what kinds of costs Japan covers and for what time period.
The Japan Times: May 12, 2005
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