US asks Japan to pay more for move
Source: Agencies |
July 5, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE United States has asked Japan to help shoulder hundreds of millions of dollars in additional fees to transfer Marines from a controversial base on Okinawa island to Guam, Kyodo news agency reported.
The extra money - needed to help pay for electricity, water and sewage facilities at the new site - could add further uncertainty to the future of the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, which has strained the security alliance that Japan and the US sealed 50 years ago.
Debate over a relocation plan for the base, which sits in the middle of a city in Okinawa, led to repeated mass protests and was a major factor in former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama's resignation last month.
Under the existing deal, 8,000 Marines and their dependents will move to the US territory of Guam and some facilities will shift to a less populated part of the Japanese island.
Japan agreed in 2006 to pay over US$6 billion of the US$10 billion the move was expected to cost.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Tokyo last month to help pay for the higher costs at the new base, Kyodo said, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.
It said that would likely cost Japan an additional hundreds of millions of dollars. Japan's massive debt and weak economy are a major issue in national polls this month, and any extra financial costs for the Okinawa base would draw strong criticism at home.
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