Japan and the United States agreed Friday to extend a bilateral special accord on host-nation support for U.S. forces in Japan for two years and not the usual five due to the ongoing U.S. military realignment talks between the two nations.
Because the structure and activities of the U.S. forces here will change over the next several years, the two sides agreed to a shorter the extension of the agreement, a Defense Agency official told reporters.
Japan hopes to carry out a "drastic review" of the host-nation agreement that would include a large cutback in financial support, in two years when the two sides discuss the agreement's extension, the official said.