Cost-cutting gov't unit rejects plan to increase SDF troops

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TOKYO, Nov. 26 Kyodo -
A cost-cutting body of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government on Thursday
called for rejecting the Defense Ministry's 7,216 million yen budget request
for fiscal 2010 to increase the number of Self-Defense Forces troops by about
3,500.
A working group of the Government Revitalization Unit also urged the ministry
to review its 123,334 million yen in payment of the wages of Japanese people
working at U.S. military bases.
Their wage levels are basically in accordance with those for national civil
servants, but the group argued that the ministry should weigh and compare them
with the earnings of local people who work in each occupation.
The group, meanwhile, gave the green light to the ministry's request totaling
118,996 million yen for paying landowners for leases of land currently used by
U.S. military bases and SDF facilities.
Three working groups of the unit made the recommendations during the second
round of their open-door screening of budget requests for the next fiscal year
starting in April.
But the working groups are not a decision-making body, and Hatoyama and other
official members of the unit will decide whether the projects should be
scrapped, slashed or transferred to local municipalities based on the results
of the groups' reviews.
As for expenses related to the U.S. military, Japan and the United States have
agreed that Tokyo will cover part of the costs for U.S. troops staying in
Japan, such as construction of their residences and cost of utilities, and pays
the salaries of Japanese employees working at U.S. bases in the name of host
nation support.
There have been calls for a review of their salaries, as the workers, who are
not national civil servants, are granted the right to organize a union and
stage strikes and do not have to move around across the nation.
''I understand that this type of fund should not be discussed in the course of
this budget screening,'' Yukio Edano, a lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party
of Japan, said, noting that other matters such as labor-management negotiations
and past agreements between Japan and the United States must also be
considered.
But Edano, who is overseeing the entire screening process, added, ''I believe
what matters is that we examined this system,'' which he said must have helped
raise awareness of it.
The three working groups comprise lawmakers and other experts such as
professors, researchers and economists and the screening will continue until
Friday.
Among other projects that came under reviews Thursday, another working group
sought to scrap the 134,229 million yen program for fiscal 2010 by the Economy,
Trade and Industry Ministry to entirely subsidize corporate research and
development projects.
It suggested that the ministry should set a limit for the subsidies and cover
up to two-thirds of the total research and development costs, arguing it is not
necessary to pay for the entire projects if they are so promising.
Concerning the SDF troops, the working group said the ministry should put more
efforts into cutting personnel costs and consider outsourcing more of its
operations currently done by SDF troops to the private sector.
The group also called on the ministry to review or slash its spending on guns,
ammunition, uniforms and other goods, suggesting that it should diversify the
procurement network, depend more on inexpensive imports, and seek more
cooperation between the ground, maritime and air defense forces.
In terms of military equipment costs, many of the group's members said they are
not confident about making a decision, citing a lack of knowledge of the
political considerations and technological requirements involved, and decided
to leave the matter to the unit.
The group decided to accept the ministry's 36,265 million yen request to cover
the cost of noise reduction steps for households living in the vicinity of
defense facilities, recommending it should cut back other allocations and
redirect the money to these steps.
But it called on the ministry to review its subsidies to local municipalities
earmarked for building welfare facilities.
The subsidies reviewed have been paid as part of the government's efforts to
make up for the sufferings of local people in Okinawa Prefecture and other
areas hosting the SDF and U.S. military facilities.
The group proposed that the government distribute financial resources instead
to local municipalities and let them decide what the money should be spent on,
in a bid to boost the effectiveness of the financial support.
By reviewing about 450 public works projects in the fiscal 2010 budget, the
government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is aiming to trim the size of the
budget by 3 trillion yen or more from record-high budgetary requests exceeding
95 trillion yen.
==Kyodo
2009-11-26 23:28:33