Japanese taxpayers fund roughly three quarters of U.S. basing costs

Evidence

Today, Japanese sympathy payments subsidize the U.S. presence at an annual level of around 150,000 per service member. For 2011 alone, Japanese taxpayers provided 7.1 billion, or around three quarters of total basing costs. In addition to agreeing to pay 6.09 billion to help close Futenma and move marines off Okinawa, the Japanese government agreed to contribute around 15.9 billion toward a larger set of transformations involving bases in Okinawa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Iwakuni, Japan. As in 1972, Japan is effectively paying to get its land back. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 878

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Concrete dollar figures substantiate the base-subsidy economics argument; complements the framing about how host nations bear the real costs of U.S. basing.