Japan Press Weekly

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2011 June 29 - July 5 [US FORCES]

Okinawa gave 2.3 billion yen in subsidies for construction of US base facilities

The Okinawa prefectural government has offered a total of about 2.3 billion yen in subsidies for the construction of U.S. military facilities between FY1996 and FY2011, although the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement does not require Okinawa to shoulder the cost of base construction.

The revelation came on July 4 in a reply from the prefecture’s civil engineering division head to Japanese Communist Party representative Nishime Sumie at a prefectural assembly general inquiry.

The figure includes: about 578 million yen for housing units in FY1996; about 236 million yen for clubhouses in FY2004; and about 1.54 billion yen for a post office and base gates in FY2010 and FY2011.

JCP Nishime asked, “Are there any requirements written in the SOFA that Okinawa must offer its people’s tax money for U.S. military facilities to be built?”

Prefecture’s Civil Engineering Division Head, Toma Kiyokatsu answered, “There is no such stipulations but the prefectural government has interpreted it that way.”

The JCP representative added, “It is an intergovernmental agreement. A municipality has no legal ground for bearing the cost. The prefecture can request the unconditional return of the land seized by the U.S. military. But if the authority helps build new facilities in exchange for the return of the present U.S. facilities, none of the prefectural people would support this.”