Japan Press Weekly

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2016 January 6 - 12 TOP3 [POLITICS]

After ‘sympathy budget’ started, over 20 trillion yen of taxpayers’ money given to US military

Since starting the “sympathy budget” for the U.S. Forces in Japan nearly four decades ago, the Japanese government has given a total of over 20 trillion yen to the U.S. military in financial support, Akahata reported on January 10.

U.S. military-related government expenditure includes spending for the U.S. military’s stationing cost (including the “sympathy budget”, subsidies for municipalities hosting bases, and rent paid to landowners of base sites), spending for the realignment of U.S. military facilities, and spending concerning the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO).

During the period between 1978 when the “sympathy budget” was established and 2015, the Japanese government gave the U.S. military 20 trillion yen of taxpayers’ money in total. The Japanese government expended eight trillion yen of that total, mainly for the “sympathy budget”, though it has no legal grounds or obligations to do so in the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

Article 24 of the SOFA stipulates that the U.S. will bear “without cost to Japan all expenditures incident to the maintenance of the United States armed forces in Japan”. On the other hand, as exceptions to this, the article adds that Japan will furnish and “make compensation where appropriate to the owners and suppliers thereof all facilities and areas and rights of way”. Thus, Tokyo is originally obliged to pay only land rents and compensation to landowners of military facilities.

In the 1970s, with its financial conditions worsening due to the prolonged Vietnam War, Washington increasingly urged its allies to shoulder a part of U.S. military costs for stationing soldiers in those countries. In response, Tokyo modified its interpretation of the SOFA and in 1978 paid 6.2 billion yen to cover the expense of Japanese workers at U.S. bases in Japan, which marked the start of the “sympathy budget” framework.

Since the 1980s, the coverage of the “sympathy budget” considerably expanded. Under a Japan-U.S. special agreement reached in 1987, the budget started to include the cost for utilities at U.S. military facilities and houses for military personnel and cost to transfer training sites within Japan. In 2015, the Japanese and U.S. governments made the sixth revision to the special agreement and Japan promised to offer 946.5 billion yen in the “sympathy budget” in the five year period from 2016.

The U.S. Department of Defense once considered closing a large portion of U.S. military facilities in Japan due to financial difficulties. Without the “sympathy budget” and other financial assistance and aid from the Japanese government, the U.S. forces would not have been able to maintain a large number of troops across Japan.

Past related article:
> Abe government gives in to US demand for increase in ‘sympathy budget’ [December 17, 2015]