Japan's lower house OKs increasing budget for hosting U.S. forces

The House of Representatives approved Tuesday a new Japan-U.S. agreement on Tokyo's budget for hosting U.S. forces in Japan, paving the way for raising the amount for the next five years to 1.05 trillion yen ($8.90 billion).The so-called host nation support for the five-year period from fiscal 2022 starting April is expected to increase 75 billion yen from the amount spent between fiscal 2016 and 2020, reflecting U.S. requests for Tokyo to foot more of the costs amid China's growing assertiveness and the severe security environment in the region.With the current agreement expiring at the en…READ FULL ARTICLE