May 8, 2010

The government used tax money to pay a total of about 9.4 billion yen for expressway tolls for U.S. military vehicles for 10 years from 1999 to 2008 even when they are touring for leisure. This has been made clear by the Ministry of Defense’s budgetary-request-related document which the Japanese Communist Party Diet Members Group asked for.

U.S. military personnel and their families are using Japanese expressways without paying the tolls not only when engaged in official duty but also on their private trips for sightseeing. The U.S. forces in Japan have the expressway tolls paid by the Ministry of Defense. This constitutes a deviation from the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

The SOFA stipulates that the Japanese government pay expressway tolls for official U.S. military purposes. However, according to the investigation by the Board of Audit of Japan, a number of expressway passes with no mention of purpose issued by the U.S. military authorities were uncovered, and many passes were considered to be used for private purposes.

Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Inoue Satoshi in a
House Committee on Foreign Affairs meeting on November 27, 2009 demanded that the government stop using tax money to pay expressway tolls for U.S. military personnel taking holiday trips. Defense Minister Kitazawa Toshimi replied, “I will deal with the matter so as to win public understanding.”
- Akahata, May 8, 2010