Japan Press Weekly

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2009 April 8 - 14 [US FORCES]

U.S. has planned to ask Japan to pay costs for relocating its forces to Guam from Okinawa

A senior Foreign Ministry official conceded that the Japan-U.S. agreement on the details of the relocation to Guam of a part of the U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa is an unequal treaty because Japan will be forced to pay the cost.

At the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on April 8, Japanese Communist Party representative Akamine Seiken pointed out that the agreement clearly states that Japan will pay the cost of 2.8 billion dollars.

Akamine asked, “How can Japan ensure that the U.S. Congress, which drafts and submits the budget bill, implements appropriate budgetary measures?”

The Foreign Ministry North American Affairs Bureau Director-General Umemoto Kazuyoshi said, “The U.S. Congress has a strong tendency to persuade its allies to take up as much of a financial burden as possible in order to reduce U.S. burdens.”

Akamine said, “How is it possible for the government of Japan, an independent country, to conclude such an agreement that obliges Japan to pay 2.8 billion dollars while the U.S. government pays nothing? The Diet should not ratify such an agreement.”

The agreement ‘notes’ that all U.S. base sites located south of the U.S. Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa will be returned to Japan on condition that Japan shares the cost of constructing an alternative base to the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station and of relocating a part of the U.S. Marine Corps units to Guam.

Akamine stressed, “The package deal in which the Japanese government constructs new bases both in Okinawa and Guam in return for the U.S. military base sites in question is an insult to the people in Okinawa.”

Pointing out that after 1951, the U.S. forces constructed military facilities by seizing Okinawan lands, Akamine said, “It is unacceptable that the U.S. government sets conditions on returning seized lands. It is obvious that the Japanese government should urge the U.S. government to put all military sites back the way they were with their own money.”