TOKYO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Wednesday denied a media report that the United States seeks up to a fivefold increase in what Japan pays to support U.S. military forces based here.
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported on Wednesday that when U.S. national security adviser John Bolton visited Japan earlier this month, he raised the possibility of the five-fold increase in talks with Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Shotaro Yachi, head of the National Security Council secretariat.
Suga told reporters at a press conference that he noticed the report, but it is not the fact. He stressed that the expense is “properly shared based on the agreement between the two governments."
Under an agreement reached between Japan and the United States, Japan should pay a total of 946.5 billion yen (8.7 billion U.S. dollars) over the five-year period from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2020.
New negotiations on what has also been called the “sympathy budget” are expected to start next year for the period from fiscal 2021.
