Japan weighs spending more on U.S. military facilities
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 7 (Kotaro Ebara)
The government is considering boosting its annual spending on U.S. military facilities in Japan by tens of billions of yen to appease the Trump administration, although the amount may not be satisfactory.
The White House National Security Council called for increasing Japan's contribution to the costs of maintaining U.S. troops in the country when officials of the National Security Secretariat visited the United States in early May, government sources said.
Japan's host nation support for U.S. forces stationed in the country averages about 211 billion yen ($1.5 billion) per fiscal year.
The government is considering increasing its spending on the Facilities Improvement Program, part of the host nation programs, by tens of billions of yen, or hundreds of millions of dollars, the sources said.
Under the program, Japan builds and provides barracks for U.S. troops, housing for their families, administration buildings and disaster management facilities, among other infrastructure.
The Defense Ministry is expected to decide on specific facilities based on requests from the U.S. military, the sources said.
U.S. President Donald Trump complained about Japan's share of the costs of stationing U.S. forces in the country when he met with economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa, who serves as the government's lead negotiator on U.S. tariffs, in Washington in mid-April.
The issue has been discussed between the U.S. National Security Council and Japan's National Security Secretariat.
Akazawa and his U.S. counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have been negotiating two other issues raised by Trump during the White House meeting: sales of U.S. automobiles in Japan and the U.S. trade deficit with Japan.
Trump, who has labeled Japan's financial burden for hosting U.S. troops as unfair since his first administration, may demand a further increase even if Japan proposes shouldering more of the costs.
'I do not think that Trump will be satisfied with that level (of increase),' a senior Defense Ministry official said of the tens of billions of yen under discussion.
During Trump's first term as U.S. president, Japan-U.S. negotiations on Tokyo's host nation support went nowhere due partly to confusion and chaos within his administration.
A senior official of the prime minister's office said the latest negotiations with the United States are in the early stages and that it is still impossible to foresee a way forward.
(This article was written by Mizuki Sato and Azusa Kato.)
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