Feb 9 07:35 AM US/Eastern(AP) - TOKYO, Feb. 9 (Kyodo) — The Japanese government on Friday adopted a bill to promote the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan featuring subsidies to local authorities in line with their degree of cooperation, something which makes it unlikely that uncooperative municipalities like Nago and Iwakuni will receive the incentives.
The bill was endorsed at a Cabinet meeting Friday morning together with another bill to abolish the scandal-tainted defense facilities agency. They will be submitted to the ongoing Diet session.
A senior Defense Ministry official said the subsidies will not be extended to Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, and Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, because of their lack of cooperation in the realignment of U.S. military forces based on a plan that Japan and the United States finalized last May.
Under the bill, the government will provide subsidies conditionally in four stages to municipalities that host or are located near bases where the U.S. presence is expected to be substantial.
But the northern Okinawa city of Nago is urging the central government to build a new airfield, the pillar of a plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station in the central Okinawa city of Ginowan, further offshore than currently agreed by the two countries.
Iwakuni has opposed outright hosting carrier-borne fighter jets that are to be transferred from the U.S. Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The official said the central government has earmarked 5.1 billion yen for the subsidies including those for Nago in its fiscal 2007 budget, which is now under parliamentary deliberations. But the subsidies for Nago cannot be disbursed as the city has recently called for changes to the current plan.
"We can't provide them as long as things remain as they are," the official said on condition of anonymity. "If we did, we would be violating a law."
The official said the government has not included subsidies for Iwakuni from the beginning due to its outright opposition, indicating the government had not planned to give money from the time it compiled the budget.
Under the bill, the money will be provided in four phases running from acceptance of the realignment plan, implementation of an environmental impact assessment, the start of facility construction, and in the fourth phase, completion of the construction or the start of facility use. The amount will increase in each phase.
The envisaged legislation has a timeline of 10 years through March but a special clause would extend its validity for up to five years if implementation of the realignment is prolonged.
The bill is also designed to enable the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to provide loans for the planned transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
Under the other bill, aimed at revising the law on the establishment of the Defense Ministry, the Defense Facilities Administration Agency would be abolished with its functions integrated into the ministry, which was upgraded from the Defense Agency in January.
The bill also envisages establishing a regiment within the Ground Self-Defense Force to beef up the force's overseas and other activities.
The plan to realign U.S. forces features relocating the Futemma Air Station within Okinawa, moving 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, transferring fighter jets from a U.S. base in Kanagawa Prefecture to Iwakuni and relocating the training site of F-15 fighter jets from the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa to the Japanese mainland.
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