Yoshio Shimoji depicts a freeloading U.S. military in Japan that occupies large swaths of land to maintain its forces, and he claims that Japanese taxpayers are burdened with paying more than $2 billion annually to take care of the bases and various demands of the U.S. military.
Shimoji is either unaware of the facts or is being disingenuous. The majority of the money the Japanese government allocates under the host-nation support budget is to pay the salaries of many thousands of Japanese workers employed by the United States on the bases and at other facilities.
How much additional money would the Japanese government have to budget each year for defense in excess of the host-nation budget disbursement if Japan terminated the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty? The Japanese government has allowed the U.S. to keep a permanent military presence on Japanese soil for more than a half century because Japan has reaped great economic and geopolitical rewards for doing so.
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