Japan Will Maintain U.S. Security Ties, Official Says

Japan will “faithfully stand by” security arrangements with the United States, including continued support of troops in Okinawa and commitments to pay for U.S. bases and personnel, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Friday.

“The presence of U.S. troops in Japan is still of great importance, and the U.S. presence is meaningful for this reason,” Kono said in a wide-ranging interview with The Times.

The issue has drawn attention in Japan, where the Defense Agency is threatening to renege on promises to pay 100% of the costs of U.S. facilities and Japanese employee salaries in fiscal year 1995, which begins next April.

Total defense spending also threatens to drop below the symbolic 1% level of gross national product maintained for the past several years.

In addition, Okinawan politicians in Kono’s Liberal Democratic Party came out this year in favor of removing all U.S. bases from Japan. About 75% of U.S. troops in Japan are stationed in Okinawa.

On Aug. 25, former Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama, chairman of the Liberal Democrats’ foreign policy research board, said that the Okinawa politicians’ activities against the bases “is a problem with our party president serving as foreign minister.” The politicians started openly advocating removal of bases in July.

Japan’s current coalition government, led by Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, has sought to portray itself as a “peace government.” And Kono himself is regarded as a dove.

But the foreign minister, who is in Los Angeles to attend four-nation trade talks, said Japanese support remains unwavering and that the current government intends to place a greater value on relations with the United States than did the previous administration.

“I am affirmative of the (troops’) presence on Okinawa,” Kono said. “Prime Minister Murayama clearly stated to President Clinton that he would uphold U.S.-Japan security arrangements.”

Asked whether Japan would move to develop nuclear weapons if North Korea does so, Kono said: “One hundred percent, No.”

He said the critical issue is not whether North Korea possesses nuclear weapons--many nations do, he said--but whether or not relations with that communist country are hostile. He declined to specify what actions Japan would take to force North Korea to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying he supports the current talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

Asked what Japan will do if the U.S. government imposes trade sanctions, as it has been threatening, Kono said he “couldn’t imagine” such measures being taken.

The foreign minister, in the interview at the Century Plaza Hotel, also said no decision has been made on what kind of resolution to pass in Parliament expressing remorse for Japan’s deeds in World War II, as Murayama has said will be done to mark the 50th anniversary of the war’s end next August.

Times staff writer Sam Jameson in Tokyo contributed to this report.