Japan and the United States have reached an agreement on how they will share the cost of relocating 8,000 U.S. Marines plus some 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to Guam. Japan will shoulder 59 percent or $6.09 billion (710 billion yen) of the total $10.27 billion (1.2 trillion yen) cost.
Clinched Sunday between Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after hours of talks in Washington D.C., the agreement is a compromise. But it is a compromise that requires detailed explanations from the government.
The U.S. originally asked Japan to pay 75 percent of the costs of relocation, which will be carried out as part of the plan to realign U.S. military bases in Japan. Japan at first said it would offer about $3 billion in loans.