JCP: 13.4 billion yen ‘sympathy budget’ to build golf course for U.S. forces must not be allowed

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP: 13.4 billion yen ‘sympathy budget’ to build golf course for U.S. forces must not be allowed

Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Kasai Akira in the House Budget Committee on August 3 asked the government whether taxpayers will approve the use of 13.4 billion yen in tax money to build a new golf course in Okinawa for the U.S. forces.

Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya replied that there is no other choice, given the precondition that the standards of services to be provided to the U.S. forces must not be lowered.

JCP Kasai pointed out that the so-called ‘sympathy’ budget for the U.S. forces stationed in Japan, for which Japan has no obligation to pay, started at 6.2 billion yen in 1978, increased every year, and now Japan’s payment amounts to 33.7 billion yen. Kasai demanded that this system be terminated.

The Democratic Party of Japan while opposition party status was critical of the ‘sympathy’ budget. Kasai criticized the DPJ for reversing its position as soon as it became a government party, referring to the budget as “host-nation support,” instead of “sympathy.”

The new golf course is in the Kadena ammunition depot district of the U.S. forces in the middle part of Okinawa Prefecture, equipped with a restaurant and a casino bar. The sign at the gate of the course reads: “This facility is constructed by the government of Japan ... under the Host Nation Funded Construction Program. This facility is a symbol of friendship, mutual support, and cooperation between Japan and the United States of America.”

-Akahata, August 4, 2010