Budget earmarked for U.S. Marines' Guam move, no new base construction+

TOKYO, Dec. 24 Kyodo -
Japan decided Friday to allocate about 37 billion yen, or $416 million, in its
fiscal 2011 defense budget for the construction of utility facilities and the
improvement of infrastructure on Guam in connection with the transfer of the
U.S. Marines from Okinawa.
But it will not earmark expenses for the construction of a new airfield in
Okinawa to replace a key Marine base in the prefecture.
Of the total defense spending worth 4,775.2 billion yen for the next fiscal
year starting April, down 0.3 percent from the previous year, the government
set aside only 1.58 billion yen for the transfer of the U.S. Marine Corps'
Futenma Air Station in Okinawa, down 70.1 percent from 5.28 billion yen in the
fiscal 2010 budget.
The sharp cut apparently reflects a stalemate between Okinawa and the Japanese
central government over the envisioned relocation of Futenma by 2014, which is
linked to the transfer of 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents from Okinawa
to the U.S. territory of Guam, part of a broader plan to realign U.S. forces.
Local residents in Okinawa oppose transferring the base within the southern
prefecture.
With the expected increase in population, Guam needs to boost its
infrastructure. The U.S. Defense Department has acknowledged that the transfer
of the Marines to the Pacific island could be delayed beyond the current target
of 2014 because of a shortage of water, sewage and electric power facilities on
the U.S. territory.
Specifically, Japan will invest the 37 billion yen allotted to Guam projects in
the state-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and JBIC will lend
the funds to local electricity and water companies on Guam.
The money will be part of the $6.09 billion, including loans, that Japan will
shoulder as the costs for transferring the Marines. The United States will
cover $4.18 billion for that purpose.
The U.S. Congress has sharply slashed the fiscal 2011 budget for transferring
the Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
The administration of President Barack Obama had proposed about $452 million
(38 billion yen) in transfer costs for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 2010,
but the amount was cut by about 70 percent to around $132 million due to a
delay in work to develop infrastructure on Guam.
Of the 1.58 billion yen allocated for the relocation of the Futenma facility,
which sits in the center of a crowded residential area in Ginowan, to a less
densely populated coastal area near the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago in
Okinawa, around 900 million yen will be earmarked as continued environmental
assessment costs.
The remaining 700 million yen will cover expenses to transfer U.S. military
housing and other facilities within Camp Schwab and prepare for construction of
a new base.
Japan and the United States reached a fresh accord in May to move the Futenma
base to the Henoko district in Nago, but the technical details of the
replacement facility have not been decided yet. Experts in the two countries
have suggested building either two runways in a V-shaped formation or a single
runway.
When other expenses are added up, such as 28.04 billion yen to transfer
aircraft from the U.S. Navy's Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture to the
Marines' Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture, the entire spending for
the realignment of U.S. forces in the fiscal 2011 budget will reach 102.65
billion yen, up 12.9 percent from the year before.
In a related move, the Defense Ministry told the city of Nago on Friday it will
not provide 1.68 billion yen (about $20.2 million) in base-hosting subsidies
for fiscal years 2009 and 2010 to the city due to its opposition to the Futenma
relocation.
The Japanese government trimmed the costs to host U.S. forces stationed in
Japan by 2.3 billion yen from a year earlier to 185.8 billion yen in the fiscal
2011 budget.
Earlier this month, Japan and the United States basically agreed to maintain
Tokyo's annual spending on hosting U.S. bases at the current level for a
five-year period from fiscal 2011.
In line with the new National Defense Program Guidelines, which were adopted
last week and call for beefing up security around Japan's remote islands, the
government allocated 30 million yen for research costs to boost security around
the Nansei Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, which are near China and Taiwan.
The government also set aside 100 million yen to train SDF members to counter
any invasion of Japan's remote islands by foreign troops.
==Kyodo
2010-12-24 22:40:17