The United States asked Japan earlier this year to pay significantly more — about five times as much per year — to support U.S. forces stationed on the soil of its major Asian ally, government sources said Saturday.
The request was delivered by John Bolton, then national security adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, when he visited Japan in July for talks with top officials, including Taro Kono, who was foreign minister at the time, and then-Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, the Japanese sources said, adding that Tokyo rejected the request.
In Japan's fiscal 2019 draft budget, about ¥197.4 billion ($1.8 billion) has been earmarked to host U.S. forces, while Trump has criticized obligations under the decades-old security treaty between the two countries as being one-sided and unfair.