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They need to help pay for the operating costs of our forces. It is like a business with overhead. We pay the salaries, R&D costs for weapons systems, the maintenance costs of equipment, fuel, etc. They should help cover those costs.

If all the forces were doing there was defending Japan then you might have a point. But face it, we keep those bases there because it's easier to stage troops and ships to the Middle East or Korea than it is from the West Coast. Japan isn't going to pay for that, nor should they.

The Saudis and Kuwaitis paid us close to $30 billion to cover the costs of the Gulf War.

And how much did we pay?

If all the forces were doing there was defending Japan then you might have a point. But face it, we keep those bases there because it's easier to stage troops and ships to the Middle East or Korea than it is from the West Coast. Japan isn't going to pay for that, nor should they.

No one is asking Japan to pay all the costs. They will just have to pay more. I served as a naval officer including on deployment to Asia including Japan. You do realize that we employ thousands of Japanese to work at our bases. Only recently, have the Japanese agreed to pick uppart of their health costs.

FYI: We don't use Japan as a staging point for the ME.

And how much did we pay?

I was stationed in SA for the entire Gulf War. If the truth be known, we made a little profit from those costs, but it certainly did not cover the several hundred people we lost. Kuwait actually paid for the construction of a new US Embassy in Kuwait.

In the 1980s, I was stationed for three years in Sasebo, Japan, where the US uses a former Japanese naval base and ammunition depot from World War II.

The US Navy occupies prime real estate in the middle of the harbor and most of the Navy base is operated by Japanese nationals who get paid to do all the construction and other work on the U.S. Navy base.

In fact, the US is one of the biggest employers in the city of maybe 200,000. I loved living there and lived in a home on the local economy.

You can't help believe that Japan should be picking up more of the expenses and today they are not. But I date myself.

My guess, there's lots of room for Trump to negotiate a better deal. In fact, if the US pushes its position, then Japan will be forced to turn its Self-Defense force into a real fighting army/navy. And that's what Prime Minister Abe wants anyway -- more independence. But there's also strong public pressure to not have a real military -- and WW2 is why.

But everybody is worried about what North Korea would do. And I sure enough, Trump knows this and is the only candidate I can recall talking about the North Korean threat at all.