Guam Okinawa plus Washington Tokyo: Senior Cabinet official opposes ministry's 'sympathy' budget plan+

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Senior Cabinet official opposes ministry's 'sympathy' budget plan+

Aug 24 09:12 AM US/Eastern

TOKYO, Aug. 24 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama on Tuesday voiced his opposition to the Defense Ministry's plan to include host nation support expenses for U.S. troops in Japan in a special budget framework for promoting economic growth when the ministry submits its budget request for fiscal 2011, sources familiar with the matter said.

Fukuyama called in senior ministry officials, including Vice Defense Minister Kimito Nakae, to the prime minister's office to express his views about the planned method of budget requests for the expenses, dubbed "sympathy budget allocations," the sources said.

The defense ministry's budget plan has emerged at a time when the Japanese and U.S. governments are seeking to agree on revisions to the special bilateral accord on host nation expenses ahead of its expiration in March 2011. Host nation support expenses cover utility costs of the U.S. forces and salaries of Japanese employees working at U.S. bases.

The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to hold open hearings [Government Revitalization Unit] to screen budgets allocated in the special category so it can reflect public opinions in compiling the budget for the next fiscal year starting in April 2011.

Kan will make the final decision on budget allocations within the special category, which is expected to entail a sort of contest between policy proposals aimed at reviving Japan, with ministries and agencies allowed to seek budgets 10 percent lower than those allotted for the current fiscal year.

The contest format could prompt calls for further drastic cuts in the budget requests, and so the United States has opposed the ministry plan because a sharp cut in the "sympathy" budget cannot be ruled out.