The Yomiuri Shimbun
The government has decided to set aside about 68.9 billion yen in the fiscal 2009 budget to be spent on projects related to the realignment of U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
In fiscal 2009, some realignment-related projects, mainly the transfer of U.S. Marine Corps units stationed in Okinawa Prefecture to Guam, will get into full swing, necessitating a threefold increase in the related budget compared with fiscal 2008. The fiscal 2008 budget for the projects was 19.1 billion yen.
In the realignment-related budget, about 35.3 billion yen will be set aside for site preparation work prior to the construction of a marine corps headquarters building and accommodation facilities.
About 9.4 billion yen will be set aside for the transfer of the marine corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to waters off Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.
About 5.6 billion yen will be made available for the planned transfer of carrier-based aircraft units to the Iwakuni Air Station in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
Government policy on economic and fiscal management and structural reform, endorsed by the Cabinet in 2006, stipulates that increases in the defense budget should be zero, or reduced, for a five-year period.
The Defense Ministry had originally estimated that realignment-related expenses would total about 100 billion yen for the fiscal 2009 budget.
However, expenditure on this scale would have affected the ministry's other operations, such as the procurement of defense equipment.
The ministry therefore asked the government to ring-fence the defense budget and set aside extra funding for the realignment-related projects.
However, as the recent rise of the value of the yen against the dollar helped suppress the expense of the marine corps' planned transfer to Guam, the budget for realignment-related projects is now expected to form part of the defense budget.
(Dec. 21, 2008)
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