Japan's government to fund 16.5 billion yen in FY 2001 to strengthen U.S. bases and military exercises

Japan's funding for the relocation of U.S. bases and the construction of infrastructure for exercises by U.S. Forces in Okinawa will be 16.5 billion yen in FY 2001 (April 1, 2001-March 31, 2002), up 17 percent from the previous year.

Akamine Seiken, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives, has revealed this figure based on documents he obtained from the Defense Facilities Administration Agency.

The money in question is reserved for the implementation of the Japan-U.S. accord in the "Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) Final Report," which requires Japan to use its tax money to strengthen U.S. bases and infrastructure for military exercises in Japan in the name of "realignment and consolidation" of U.S. bases in Okinawa.

Japan's government has spent a large sum of money from the "sympathy budget" to fund the stationing in Japan of the U.S. Forces, although the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) requires the U.S. to pay all costs necessary for the stationing of U.S. troops.

The Japanese government in 1996 first budgeted SACO-related money, which is referred to as the "second sympathy budget."

The FY 2001 SACO budget includes for the first time about 400 million yen for the "basic study of weather and sea conditions" as the groundwork for a "basic plan" to construct a state-of-the-art U.S. offshore base as an alternative to the U.S. Marines Futenma Air Station.

It also includes 27 million yen to be given to 23 fisheries cooperatives ostensibly to compensate "damage to fisheries," but its true aim is to encourage them to accept the new base plan.

Ostensibly to alleviate the burden Okinawans have to endure, live-fire exercises by U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa are held on Japan's mainland. Japan under the SACO accord has appropriated 472 million yen for the construction of infrastructure in three exercise fields of Ojojihara (Miyagi Pref.), Yausubetsu (Hokkaido), and Hijudai (Oita Pref.).

Akamine last September visited the Hijudai exercise ground to find that the U.S. Forces only wanted "cooking facilities" to be built at Japan's expense, but the Japanese government provided them with new houses, a camp kitchen, and toilets.

To local governments in Okinawa and the host municipalities of the three exercise fields on mainland Japan, about 4 billion yen will be used for soundproofing houses, helping residents move out, and improving living conditions in the name of the "stabilization of public life," and an additional 4.3 billion yen to push them into accepting the U.S. bases and exercises. (end)