Dec 23 08:24 PM US/EasternTOKYO, Dec. 24 (AP) - (Kyodo) — The Cabinet approved a plan Wednesday to cut Japan's fiscal 2009 defense spending for the seventh consecutive year to a 14-year low on falling oil prices, the appreciation of the yen and cost savings from the bulk purchase of arms and munitions.
Defense spending for the fiscal year starting in April will fall 0.1 percent, or 5.5 billion yen, from the initial fiscal 2008 budget to 4,774.1 billion yen.
The size of the initial defense budget will remain below the 4,800 billion yen level for the second straight year if parliament approves the budget.
The government allocated 89.2 billion yen to upgrade 22 F-15 fighter jets and acquire radar components for 38 F-15s for the Air Self- Defense Force -- a substitute measure given that the Defense Ministry has delayed finalizing a next-generation main striker model.
The government also allotted 145.1 billion yen to acquire two non- Aegis destroyers for the Maritime Self-Defense Force, and 25.6 billion yen to beef up the capabilities of CH-47JA transport helicopters for the Ground Self-Defense Force.
The bulk purchase of defense equipment will save 86.8 billion yen in the F-15-related spending, helping squeeze overall equipment spending by some 280 billion yen, according to the Finance Ministry.
Although the Defense Ministry had asked for 179.9 billion yen in fuel expenses, the government earmarked 118.3 billion yen for fiscal 2009 on falling oil prices, up 1.8 percent from the current fiscal year.
The spending for projects related to the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan will more than triple to 68.9 billion yen, including 8.7 billion yen for SDF-related spending necessitated by the realignment. Realignment related spending for the initial fiscal 2008 budget was 19.1 billion yen.
The allocation increased substantially because Japan will begin financing infrastructure projects in the U.S. territory of Guam, mainly in the form of land development, to relocate U.S. Marines from Okinawa Prefecture under a plan agreed in 2006.
The government allocated 34.6 billion yen for the Guam projects out of the $2.8 billion Japan has promised to provide from its coffers for them under the 2006 agreement.
Under the same accord, the helicopter functions at the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa, are to be relocated to an area around the shore of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also Okinawa, by the end of 2014.
To that end, the government allocated 9.4 billion yen, up 4.6 billion yen from the initial fiscal 2008 budget, mainly to build revetments and tear down barracks at the camp.
But the government makes no allocation in the fiscal 2009 budget for the costs of filling in land to build runways there, making it difficult for the relocation to be completed by the deadline agreed between Japan and the United States.
Meanwhile, the government allocated 6.0 billion yen to acquire precision-guided munitions for the GSDF and ASDF in the supplementary budget for the current fiscal year to be submitted to the ordinary session of the Diet in January.
The new munitions will "complement" the decommissioning of cluster bombs owned by the GSDF and ASDF following Japan's signing of an international anti-cluster bomb convention this month.
The government also allocated 800 million yen in the fiscal 2009 budget for the decommissioning of cluster bombs.
Posts
