Japan's contribution to the United Nations budget for 2013-2015 will drop to 10.83 percent, down from 12.53 percent for the preceding three years, according to a resolution adopted Monday by the U.N. General Assembly.
Tokyo's share — nearly half of its peak contribution of 20.57 percent in 2000 — is still the second-largest after the United States, which will be putting up 22 percent of the regular budget of the global body.
Given Japan's contribution at one time approached that of the United States and was twice what third-ranking Germany provided, the drop in the share could lead to a weakened presence in the U.N. system.
Contributions are revised once every three years, determined by each country's relative economic prowess. Germany ranks third in the latest assessment, with 7.14 percent followed by France with 5.59 percent and Britain 5.18 percent.
China comes in sixth, up from eighth in the period through 2012, outranking Italy and Canada, with its share growing sharply to 5.15 percent from 3.19 percent. South Korea's portion dropped to 1.99 percent from 2.26 percent.
Contributions are basically determined by gross national income, a gauge of economic activity of a country, with increased weight on industrialized economies and less so on developing countries. The maximum is 22 percent, a rate applied to the United States and the minimum is 0.001 percent.
In 2000, more than two-thirds of the budget came from the top five contributors — the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and France.
The latest review puts the five countries' combined share from 2013 to 50.75 percent, a sign that the weight of advanced economies has been on the decline.