<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Thanks, Eija, for announcing this.<div><br><div><div>On Mar 20, 2012, at 11:22 AM, Eija Niskanen wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">On April 5, they're showing a controversial documentary about the US<br>military's global network of more than 700 bases, highlighting the<br>impact their 250,000 soldiers have on local populations. There is<br>footage from Okinawa and a discussion of why Japan continues to host<br>such a huge US presence.<br></span></blockquote></div><br></div><div>Slightly tangential, but does anybody know of a documentary about the Japanese military and its footprint?</div><div><br></div><div>I saw a <a href="http://www.iiss.org/publications/military-balance/the-military-balance-2012/press-statement/figure-comparative-defence-statistics/">chart</a> today of the top ten defense budgets in the world, and noted that Japan is #5, spending 58.4 Billion USD per year. That puts Japan ahead of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, India, and Brazil.</div><div><br></div><div>58 Billion is kind of a lot of money. No wonder the government needs to slash budgets for the Japan Foundation and everything else related to culture and education.</div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div><br></div><div>Mark Roberts</div><div><div><div><div>Research Fellow, University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy<br><a href="http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/blog/mark_roberts/index_en.php">http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/blog/mark_roberts/index_en.php</a></div></div></div></div><div><br></div></body></html>