The U.S. and Japan virtually agree on a one-year extension of the US military base in Japan

It is reported that the United States and Japan have tentatively agreed on a plan to temporarily extend the Special Agreement on Defense Cost Sharing (SMA) for the US Forces in Japan for one year from the current level. On the 31st, Kyodo News quoted multiple Japanese government officials, “Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu re-discussed on the issue of sharing after 2022 at a telephone conference with Tony Blingen, the new US Secretary of State on the 27th. ‘We proposed this kind of plan on the premise of doing this.’

Japan’s NHK broadcast on the 27th, reporting the news of the first phone conference between Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and US Secretary of State Tony Blincoln. [연합뉴스]

The news agency said, “The US side has expressed its approval” to the Japanese proposal. In this regard, the US and Japan plan to resume working-level consultations this week and reach an early agreement on this proposal.

Unlike the Korea-US SMA, which is updated almost every year, the US-Japan SMA is updated every five years. The U.S. and Japan began negotiations in November of last year, but at the time of Donald Trump, the US president demanded a significant increase and could not find an agreement. Afterwards, the Japanese side postponed the agreement after the regime change when it became clear that President Trump was retiring.

The initial deadline was in March. However, the Japanese side proposed to temporarily suspend negotiations due to the circumstances of the Biden administration, which had just been launched.

At the time of the Trump administration, the specific amount of contributions the United States requested was not disclosed. However, according to a memoir published in June last year by former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, it amounted to $8 billion per year, four times the current level.

US President Donald Trump visited the US Naval Base in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan in 2019. [로이터=뉴스1]

If the U.S. and Japan agree on a one-year extension plan, this year’s contribution is expected to reach 2017 billion yen (about 2.5 trillion won). This is a 1.2% increase from last year’s share of 193 billion yen (approximately 2,126 billion).

In Japan, the fiscal year begins in April, so the budget bill must be passed by the National Assembly in late March. For this reason, the Japanese government plans to complete negotiations with the United States by February and obtain approval from the National Assembly in March, the news agency said.

Reporter Kim Hong-bum [email protected]