Washington's request that Japan maintain its "sympathy budget," or special host-nation financial support for the U.S. forces stationed here, has drawn a cool reception from the Japanese government and the media. During his visit here last week, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen repeated that request to Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and his Japanese counterpart, Mr. Tsutomu Kawara. Japan's dulled enthusiasm for the outlays is attributed to a reversal in economic fortunes. When the current formula was worked out unilaterally by Japan in 1978 to help ease the U.S. financial burden, the United States was plagued with huge fiscal deficits. Now that the U.S. government is producing a gigantic budget surplus -- in sharp contrast to Tokyo's ballooning deficit -- the prevailing perception here is that it does not stand to reason that Japan alone should continue to shoulder this burden.

If nothing is done about this special host-nation budget, it will remain essentially unchanged for five years beginning in April 2001. The government is committed to disburse a total of 260.3 billion yen in fiscal 2000 -- down 7.5 billion yen, or 2.8 percent, from the year before. A breakdown of the sum looks like this: 80.9 billion yen in base maintenance costs (down 5.4 percent); 149.3 billion yen in wages for Japanese base workers (down 0.7 percent); 29.8 billion yen in utility bills (down 5.9 percent); and 400 million yen in training and relocation expenses (unchanged).

The Finance Ministry plays up the spending cuts. The truth, however, is the figures represent not so much outright reductions due to economies, but natural -- and in some cases, even artificial -- decreases resulting from technical factors. Maintenance costs have dropped because part of the maintenance program has been carried over to the next fiscal year. Labor costs have shrunk because cuts in annual bonuses for government employees apply to base workers as well. The lower utility bills reflect lower electricity and water rates.