Japan Press Weekly

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2014 April 9 - 15 [POLITICS]

Don’t use taxpayer money for relocation of US Marines: JCP Kasai

Japan’s Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 9 approved by majority vote a Japan-U.S. protocol to transfer part of the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa outside the country. Japanese Communist Party representative Kasai Akira voted against the agreement, arguing that it will impose additional relocation costs onto Japan.

The Japanese and U.S. governments had already agreed to relocate part of the Marines to other locations outside Japan in the guise of “alleviating the base burden” on Okinawan people.

The protocol obliges Japan to provide the money needed for the U.S. to improve its military training fields on the Northern Mariana Islands and on Guam. This is supposedly because of fiscal difficulties being experienced by the U.S. administration.

In response to Kasai’s interpellation in the committee meeting, the director-general of the North American Affairs Bureau at the Foreign Ministry said that Japan has never spent public money for improving U.S. military facilities outside of Japan.

Kasai also revealed that the U.S. authorities plan to increase the number of marines who will continue to stay in Japan by more than 1,000 compared to its initial reduction plan, showing a report issued by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

According to that report, the number of leathernecks to remain in Japan will increase by 1,154 to total 14,954.

The JCP lawmaker noted that it is unfair for Japan to shoulder the relocation costs while accepting the U.S. plan that lowered its original target. He demanded that the government not give such unwarranted financial support to the United States.

Past related article:
> Japan’s payment for US Marines relocation to Guam exaggerated [May 24, 2011]