The United States has not asked Tokyo to pay more to keep its troops in the country, Japan's defense minister said Tuesday, after former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in his tell-all memoir that he had conveyed President Donald Trump's demand for an $8 billion annual payment.
"Negotiations over the cost of hosting (American troops) have not started yet," Defense Minister Taro Kono told a regular news conference. "The Japanese government has not received any request from the United States with regard to this issue."
The current agreement that covers the 54,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan expires in March 2021.