Japan effectively acknowledged the existence of a signed paper confirming its commitment to pay $65 million to the United States military in connection with the 1972 reversion of Okinawa, a newly declassified diplomatic cable showed Thursday.
While a declassified U.S. document has already shown that Tokyo and Washington reached a secret bilateral pact on the costs involved in facility improvements and base relocation, the cable for the first time shows that there also was a paper confirming specific expenses.
The two countries secretly agreed that Japan would pay $65 million — worth around ¥234 billion in today's economy — to improve and relocate facilities outside the purview of the $320 million Tokyo had already agreed to pay Washington under an accord specifying Okinawa's reversion to Japan.