Japan, U.S. Agree On Moving Marines

Japan and the United States agreed Monday on a plan to partially move U.S. Marines from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, with Tokyo shouldering $6.1 billion of the cost, Kyodo News agency reported Monday.

The deal was reached at talks in Washington between Japanese defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Kyodo said.

The Japanese contribution amounts to 59 percent of the cost of transferring the 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the Pacific island of Guam, which is part of a broad realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.

Japan will pay $2.8 billion, and the rest of its share will be in loans, Kyodo said.

The United States had earlier proposed that Japan pay 75 percent of the estimated $10 billion cost of moving the Marines. Japan originally had said it would contribute about a third of that amount.

Japanese defense officials in Tokyo the reports of Monday's agreement could not be immediately confirmed.

Nukaga left Tokyo for Washington on Friday for talks with Rumsfeld in a last-ditch effort to finalize the agreement.

The talks are part of the biggest restructuring and streamlining of the U.S. military in Japan in decades. An outline of the overall realignment plan was announced in October and was to be finalized by the end of March, but bogged down over details.

Under a mutual security pact, the United States has about 50,000 troops stationed in Japan. The presence includes more than 10,000 Marines, several air bases and the home port for the Seventh Fleet.
Tokyo Shouldering More Than Half Of The Cost Of Transferring 8,000 Marines