Japan set to pay significantly more to host U.S. military bases

[soryang]

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN by Naoki Matsuyama and Tatsuya Sato

November 24, 2021 at 15:45 JST

Japan is set to shell out billions of yen more annually to host U.S. military bases, agreeing to the United States' request to do so, according to a government source.

The Japanese and U.S. governments are expected to decide that Japan’s yearly contribution to host the bases will range from about 250 billion yen to 299 billion yen ($2.17 billion to $2.6 billion) from fiscal 2022.

That would mean significantly more money than the 201.7 billion yen Japan paid in fiscal 2021 will go into what it refers to as the “omoiyari yosan,” or “sympathy budget.”

The added funds mean that Japan will pay more for the cost of joint drills between the U.S. forces and the Self-Defense Forces, among other things...

more:

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14487877

[thucythucy]

1. Worried about China?

I wonder, is Japan also increasing its defense budget?

[soryang]

2. Prime Minister Kishida said he would support increased defense spending

Last edited Wed Nov 24, 2021, 08:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Some of the other more extreme proposals by right wing factions in the LDP he had to negotiate with to become prime minister I don't think he favors. I noticed that Abe's faction, the largest in the LDP, supported him and that Abe's brother Kishi is still Defense Minister after the election. Don't think that Kishida supports constitutional revisions to "unleash the military" or proposals to allow deployment of nuclear weapons in Japan. I think he wants to avoid even the mention of these controversial measures. He is from Hiroshima (as I recall). Abe is viewed as the Shogun behind the scenes at this point. Reports about striking progress against the covid epidemic (for whatever reason, this is still unclear) may strengthen Kishida's hand from the far right elements in in LDP that he had to bow to in order to become PM. This is a fortuitous development I don't think Abe and Aso anticipated. We'll see.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday that nothing has been decided on whether he will accept his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi's invitation of an official visit to China.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has taken a cautious stance on the request as the two countries remain at odds over territorial and human rights issues.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/11/8557cfaa94c6-japan-foreign-minister-says-no-decision-made-on-china-visit.html

Hayashi is really the only Kishida man in the cabinet. I read an assessment a couple of weeks back, that he has some positive ties with China and South Korea, that I think Kishida would potentially like to take advantage of. The political factions allowed the Hayashi appointment as Foreign Minister after they lost some seats in the last election, but Kishida's base is too narrow to get out from the right wing factions's control of LDP policy and the major cabinet positions. This is primarily the Abe and Asa factions.

[thucythucy]

3. Thank you for this analysis.

Best wishes.