September 12, 2019

Japan’s “sympathy budget” for U.S. Forces in Japan may be used indirectly to construct President Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Akahata has learned this from a recent announcement made by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Pentagon decided to cut 3.5 billion dollars (about 380 billion yen) from its budget for construction projects at military installations inside and outside the country in order to build the president’s new wall on the border with Mexico. Of the amount announced, 1.8 billion dollars were allocated to the projects at overseas military facilities which include about 460 million dollars (about 43.6 billion yen) for projects at U.S. bases in Japan, such as the U.S. Yokota base.

Regarding the DoD announcement, Akahata referred to the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in Okinawa to Guam. Akahata pointed out that the relocation plan will possibly be delayed because a 260 million-dollar (27.6 billion yen) fund for the construction of U.S. base-related facilities on Guam for the planned relocation was used for the border wall construction.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on September 3 in front of the press expressed his intent to request Japan and other U.S. allies to make contributions to cover the border wall-induced shortfall in the budget for construction projects at U.S. military bases abroad.