U.S., Japan reach deal on troop transfer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States and Japan have struck a bargain over a plan to realign U.S. forces in Japan, with Japan agreeing to pay $6.1 billion of the nearly $10.3 billion cost, the Japanese defense chief said Sunday night.
Japanese Defense Minister Fukushiro Nukaga told reporters after his three-hour meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that Japan wanted to have an appropriate sharing of costs in transferring 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the Pacific island of Guam.
Japan has offered to pay $2.8 billion, and the remainder of its $6.1 billion share would take the form of loans to the United States. Japan would shoulder 59 percent of the realignment cost.
Pentagon officials could not be reached immediately to comment on the accord.
Nukaga said both sides agreed that the Japan-U.S. alliance is important, not only for Japan but also for the region.
"I had not expected that such an agreement was possible," Nukaga told Japanese reporters, according to Japanese broadcast network NHK.
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