Japan offers US $336 million to move US Marine base to Guam

[CougarKing]

It doesn't seem like this has been posted before, after I did a search.

Japan offers $336 mil to pay for U.S. Marines' transfer to Guam
Sunday 12th July, 02:05 AM JST

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/japan-offers-336-mil-for-us-marines-guam-transfer

Japan agreed Saturday with the United States to offer $336 million in total for the current fiscal year to realize the planned transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and James Zumwalt, charge d’affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, exchanged notes on the funding, given that an accord committing the two countries to following through on the transfer took effect May 19.

The accord gives a legal basis to the 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, commonly referred to as the ‘‘road map,’’ which Tokyo and Washington say is meant to reduce the burden on communities near U.S. bases. It legally requires Tokyo to spend up to $2.8 billion on infrastructure projects on the U.S. territory in the Pacific. The $336 million, or about 34.6 billion yen, will be used for infrastructure projects in the Finegayan area and Apra Harbor on Guam, the ministry said.

 

[CougarKing]

A related update:

An update:

Japan Minister: U.S. Troop Agreement 'Humiliating'
BY KYOKO HASEGAWA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 15 Oct 2009 09:29 

TOKYO - Japan's new defense minister said October 15 that rules governing the U.S. troop presence on Okinawa island were "humiliating" while conceding that a major American base would likely have to stay there.

Toshimi Kitazawa, whose center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took power last month, was speaking ahead of a visit next week by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a month before a trip by President Barack Obama.

The minister stressed his party's message that, while Tokyo values the traditionally strong relationship with the United States, it is also seeking less subservient U.S. ties than those under its conservative predecessors.

Japan wants "to build a new relationship that meets the requirements of the new era instead of getting mired in fears of offending them," the minister said, stressing however that the alliance remains "extremely important."

Next week, the 71-year-old minister said, he wants to have "candid talks" with Gates about the American military presence on southern Okinawa, which is home to more than half of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

A flashpoint has long been the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base, located in a crowded urban area on the island, where residents have been angered by aircraft noise while community frictions with U.S. service personnel have grown.

Anger rose especially after the 1995 gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl and the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by U.S. military servicemen.

Under the 1960 Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, the troops fall under American, not Japanese, criminal jurisdiction - although more recently indicted suspects in serious cases have been handed to Japanese authorities.

Despite this, the "people in Okinawa as a whole feel that the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement is humiliating," Kitazawa said. "We will propose to review the agreement when Mr. Gates comes here.

"People living close to U.S. bases say 'please close the U.S. bases, eliminate the noise,'" he said. "We want to end the suffering and the burden endured by the Okinawan people who have long hosted the U.S. bases."

He added: "Okinawan people have high hopes that change will come to their lives after the change of government."

Under a 2006 agreement struck under a conservative Japanese government and the U.S. administration of George W. Bush, the air base is to be closed and relocated to a coastal area of Okinawa by 2014.

But new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he wants the base to be moved off Okinawa, even out of Japan altogether, although this week he appeared to soften his stance.

Kitazawa said Tokyo wants to renegotiate the agreement on realigning U.S. forces, which also includes a plan to move 8,000 U.S. troops to Guam - although Washington has already indicated it expects the deal to stand.

But Kitazawa also said that Japan had few other options than to relocate the Futenma base somewhere within Okinawa.

"Regarding a relocation outside Okinawa, where else do we have?" he said.

"It's extremely difficult to find an alternative place in the current situation.

"In reality we can only slightly change the current plan," because of the geographical features of the Okinawan coast, Kitazawa said.

Hours earlier in Washington Japan informed White House and Pentagon officials that it would end an Indian Ocean naval refueling mission backing the war in Afghanistan when its mandate expires in January.

The minister said that "the most feasible support Japan can offer in terms of Afghanistan is civilian support," adding that one option would be for Japanese air force planes to transport aid to Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Other issues to be discussed with Gates would include Japan's choice of next-generation fighter jets.

Although the U.S.-made Lockheed Martin F-35 is one option, the minister said that "our choice is wide open to other options, of non-American-made jets."

 

[Yrys]

No easy answers in Okinawa US base debate

The names of 200,000 Japanese troops and civilians are engraved in granite
at Okinawa's memorial park, remembering the last major battle of World War
II. Alongside them are the 12,500 Americans who also perished in the brutal,
inch-by-inch fight for the small, tropical island of coral 1,000 miles south of Tokyo.

The United States has been here ever since, but a peace deal signed 50 years
ago was not an equal one, agreed in the aftermath of war, surrender, then
occupation.  There are now 24,000 US troops on Okinawa, most of them marines,
and their bases, airfields, housing and training facilities cover a fifth of the island.

The people of Okinawa felt their lives were sacrificed in the war for the sake of
the country, and they now believe they are shouldering more of their share of
the burden of hosting US forces - with three quarters of American facilities in
Japan on their small island.

"We provide the Japanese government with a credible deterrence force - a
highly effective, highly trained and very mobile force that is very strategically
located," said Lieutenant General Terry Robling, commander of US marine
bases in Japan.  "We think the stability of the region has been caused by
our presence here. Over 50 years now there's been relative peace in the
Asia region."

But it comes at a cost.

Local tensions

Japan pays $4bn (£2.6bn) a year to host the 50,000 US troops stationed across
the country, and the noise, safety fears and disturbance of having so many troops
in built-up areas is creating tension.

The 1995 gang rape of a young girl by US troops in Okinawa shook the relationship,
a helicopter crash near Futenma air base in 2004 shocked people in Ginowan City
which has grown to surround it, and crime by US personnel is also something local
people complain about.

"We have not had an accident aboard Futenma since 2004 - there were no accidents
at all that I know of prior to that or since then," said Colonel Dale Smith, who commands
Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.  "As far as safety goes we do a number of things.
Helicopters come in at more steep angles and climb out at more steep rates, which
gives more distance between us and the urban terrain and decreases the noise levels."

But at Futenma Elementary School, which has a playground backing on to the end
of the runway, the deputy head teacher Muneo Nakamura says he fears for the
children's safety every day.

'More equal'

After years of discussions the Japanese and American governments agreed a deal
to restructure US forces on Okinawa. It involved closing Futenma air base, building
a new runway on reclaimed land and relocating troops at a base in the less populated
north of the island. Japan would pick up $6bn of the $10bn cost. As part of the deal,
8,000 US marines would also move to Guam, where President Obama is due next week.

But last year Yukio Hatoyama was elected prime minister, after 50 years of almost
unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.  He made a campaign promise to
move US troops off Okinawa as part of a creating a "more equal" partnership with
America.  The original deal was put on hold and he is now torn between a threat
from ruling coalition partners to withdraw support if he breaks his promise, and
pressure from the US. He has promised to announce a new plan by the end of May
this year.

Mr Hatoyama's stance has strained the alliance, but America has to tread carefully
as it also relies on Japan as the centre of its strategic operations in Asia.

"I think the US presence is an incredibly stabilising factor. Asia is going through a
period of historic strategic change in the balance of power," said Raymond Greene,
the US consul general in Okinawa.  "We have the nuclear missile programmes in North
Korea; obviously the rise of China is something we welcome, but as it rises economically
there are many questions about military modernisation programme and its transparency,
or lack thereof."

Security hub

The razor wire on the beach surrounding the northern base where troops could be
moved to is covered in ribbons and protest banners. Small but vocal demonstrations
are held periodically - there is a growing feeling that Japan should go its own way
and reduce its reliance on America.

But generations of Okinawans have made a living out of the US military.  Shinichiro
Isa used to work on a base but is now retired. His son, Hiroyuki, currently works at
Futenma air base and they accept the large American presence in exchange for the
money it brings.  "It's not just because I worked on the base that I am in favour of
the Americans being here," Mr Isa said.

"It's important not just for the security of Okinawa or Japan but for the whole of the
region from South Korea to the Philippines."  But he does not know if there'll be the
chance for his two year-old grandson, Shunpei, to follow the family tradition.

The future of US forces here depends on the military alliance continuing, and the
direction in which Japan's new government wants to take the country.