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5-trillion yen military budget proposed for FY 2006

The Finance Ministry draft of the budget for FY 2006 submitted to the cabinet on December 20 allotted 4.81 trillion yen to a military buildup, including expenditures related to the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO).

While the total budget request for FY 2006 declined by 3 percent from the previous year, the amount of the military budget was down only 0.9 percent (42.7 billion yen).

If the 61.1 billion yen for launching an information gathering satellite is added, the total military budget will be 4.87 trillion yen.

Japan-U.S. joint missile developmen

One of major factors that keeps Japan's military budget approximately at the 5 trillion yen level is the expenditure of 139.9 billion yen for the development of the "missile-defense" system, a record high. As was the case with the FY 2004 and FY 2005 budgets, the government includes expenditures for the introduction of Aegis destroyer-deployed SM-3s and PAC-3s, as well as the new procurement of the state-of-the-art radar FPS-XX.

Thus, the government is going to put in a huge amount of tax money to support the U.S. preemptive war strategy.

Enabling the SDF to go abroad

The draft budget reflects the government policy of allowing Japan's military to take part in joint operations with U.S. forces anywhere in the world.

To this end, it procured the second "helicopter carrier" to be deployed for a long term to the Indian Ocean. The cost earmarked in the budget plan for the presence of the SDF units for one more year in Iraq is estimated at 14.6 billion yen.

232.6 billion yen as gift to U.S. forces in Japan

The Finance Ministry draft claims 232.6 billion yen as costs for supporting the U.S. forces in Japan, which should actually be shouldered by the U.S. under the terms of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

The costs called "considerate budgets" include personnel costs for Japanese employees at U.S. bases (143.5 billion yen), expenses for lighting, fuel, and water supply (24.8 billion yen), and costs for U.S. base maintenance (63.8 billion yen).
- Akahata, December 21, 2005