Japan Press Weekly

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2020 January 29 - February 4 [POLITICS]

JCP Fujino: Gov’t should reject US demand for more financial support for US troops in Japan

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Fujino Yasufumi on January 28 at a House Budget Committee meeting urged the Abe government to reject the U.S. demand that Japan shoulder a much larger share of the burden in the cost of stationing the U.S. military in Japan.

Fujino made this request in his question time during concluding discussion on the 2019 supplementary budget draft.

Fujino quoted U.S. President Donald Trump as saying that he is confident that “Japan’s contributions to our mutual security will continue to grow” in his official statement on the 60th anniversary of the signing of the revised U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. The JCP lawmaker also noted that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo called the treaty “a pillar that is indestructible” in his speech at a reception to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Fujino said that the U.S. has no hesitation in pushing Japan to pay even more for the U.S. military in Japan because the Japanese government complies with any requests from Washington. Fujino insisted that the Japanese government should declare that it will reject the U.S. demand.

In response, Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu said that the U.S. military’s stationing cost is fairly shared between the two countries. Refuting Motegi, Fujino pointed out that the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement does not require Japan to shoulder the stationing costs, but Japan spends a large amount of taxpayers’ money in the guise of the "sympathy budget”, giving in to U.S. pressure. In addition, Fujino claimed, Tokyo even pays a part of the realignment costs of the U.S. military. As a result, he said, the Japanese government used 10 trillion yen for the U.S. forces over the last 43 years.

Referring to former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s remark in 1993 that to station U.S. troops in Japan costs far less money than stationing them in the U.S., Fujino said, “The current status of cost-sharing is totally unfair. The U.S. demand for even more financial support is unacceptable.” Fujino stressed that the Abe government should stop taking such an overly subservient attitude toward the U.S.