Japan Press Weekly

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2013 June 26 - July 2 [US FORCES]

US bases in Japan highly valued due to Japan’s generosity

A U.S. Department of Defense report shows that U.S. military bases in Japan have about four trillion yen in value (with land value not taken into account), making it the No. 1 value of all the bases the U.S. has abroad.

According to the DoD Base Structure Report FY 2013 Baseline, a total value representing the calculated cost to replace the current physical facilities and supporting infrastructure of the U.S. bases in Japan amounts to 45.28 billion dollars (four trillion yen at the then exchange rate), as of September 2012.

U.S. bases in Germany are worth 40.72 billion dollars, second in value assessment after Japan, though the number of the U.S. bases there exceeds that in Japan.

The Japanese government has contributed to upgrading the facilities and supporting infrastructure of the U.S. military bases by allocating a generous subsidy called a “sympathy budget”, which gives the U.S. a strong reason to hang on to its bases in Japan.

The U.S. Congress is now cutting the defense budget, voicing strong discontent with the Japanese government allotting less money for the sympathy budget for construction of U.S. military facilities and for meeting U.S. military priorities.