Japan and the United States have agreed to increase Tokyo's contribution for hosting U.S. military forces to 1.05 trillion yen ($9.2 billion) over the five-year period from fiscal 2022 starting April, government sources said Monday.

The roughly 5 percent increase in so-called host nation support, equivalent to 211 billion yen per fiscal year, came in response to calls from the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden for the Japanese government to foot more of the costs, given the need for the U.S. forces to deal with China.

The two sides have agreed to reduce Tokyo's financial contribution for utility costs, with the increased amount to be allocated to funding expenses such as maintenance of facilities used together by Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, and their joint exercises, the sources said.

The Japanese government is believed to have determined that a certain amount of increase was inevitable in light of the need to boost the long-standing security alliance, while the U.S. forces are mobilizing their most advanced hardware in the region to address China's rapid military expansion.

The agreement will be signed during a meeting involving the two allies' defense and foreign ministers to be held in the United States in January.

In the current fiscal year through March, the support to cover expenses, such as utilities and the wages of Japanese staff at U.S. military bases, was budgeted at 201.7 billion yen.

Cost-sharing agreements between Japan and the United States are usually signed to cover five-year terms.

But for fiscal 2021, the two countries settled for a one-year extension of a five-year pact that expired in March 2021, as their talks were affected by the transition of presidential power in Washington from Donald Trump to Biden.


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