Military survey in Japan: the results are in
A quick trawl of the Japanese news feeds has shown that the US military survey that was started last week has now published its findings. Apparently, 92,491 people “connected” with the military were living in Japan as of March 2007, with 21,885 (23.7%) living off base. Regarding Okinawa, there were 45,403 people connected with the military living here, with 10,319 (22.7%) living off-base. When the word “connected” is used, I am assuming this means people in the military, their families and contractors that are working for the military. What is unclear is whether Japanese spouses, families and workers for the military are counted in their figures. I assume they are not but this is not stated and could be distorting the figures somewhat.
So what do these figures mean? Well, not too much really. But as an economics graduate, I was interested in a few articles posting the monetary figures coming out of this. In Okinawa there are around 5,000 housing units allocated to military housing off base that are currently occupied. And let’s say that each one has a rent of $1,000 a month (a low estimate, as I know some people having a rent of $3-4,000 per month). That means the local economy is getting a minimum of $5m per month from rent alone, giving an annual total of at least $60m. The landlords inflate their prices for these properties greatly (mainly as they know the US military housing allowance will cover a large proportion of it) and they know that, should the US military pull out of Okinawa completely, there is no way that locals would pay rents of $2-3000 per month for huge properties. Also, slightly unrelated but seeing as we’re talking about economics, the US Marine Corps have shown the economic impact of the military in Okinawa (in Japanese). Glancing at that, you can see that the military accounts for 5% of GDP in Okinawa, and is the 2nd biggest employer of Okinawans (employing 7,928 people, if my Japanese is correct).
I’m really at a loss trying to think of what else the figures are trying to tell you. What are your thoughts out there, readers?
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