Japan seeking to cut its contributions to UN

Facing economic decline, Japan will seek a cut in the funds it gives the United Nations when the UN General Assembly reviews financial contributions at the end of this year, a foreign ministry official said Friday.

Japan is the second largest contributor after the United States, paying 263.5 million dollars in 2003, accounting for 19.5 percent of the total UN budget.

The United States is giving 341.5 million dollars this year, shouldering some 22 percent of the total budget.

Japan joined the UN in 1956 with a contribution equivalent to just 2.0 percent of the global body's budget, but its share has risen sharply reflecting its rapid economic growth.

The Japanese contribution was some 10 percent during the 1980s and exceeded 20 percent in 2000.

But as Japan's economy has declined, so has its contribution with its share falling to 19.6 percent in 2001.

Tokyo plans to request a further reduction during the upcoming review later this year, said the official who is in charge of Japan's fiscal policy for the UN at the foreign ministry.

"Compared with the previous three years, Japan's economy continues to deteriorate," he said.

"We would like to ask the UN to decide our contribution based on the current status of the Japanese economy and we hope that we can request even the slightest reduction," the official said.

The move, he said, was part of Tokyo's efforts to "seek fairness in the UN contribution system."

Japan's economy accounts for 14 to 15 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), yet the country pays 19 percent of the total UN budget, the official said.

The United States, meanwhile, covers 22 percent of the UN budget while its economy, the biggest in the world, is equal to some 30 percent of global GDP.

The UN reviews the scale of contributions paid by its 191 member nations once every three years and their respective shares are decided mainly on the economic strength of each country.

But the official insisted the sought-after budgetary cut did not mean Japan was giving up its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

"Our efforts to become a permanent member of the Security Council remain the same. There will be no change in our drive for that goal even if there is a reduction" in Japan's UN contribution, he said.

A senior foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has proposed Tokyo cut its contribution to the cost of UN organisations and peacekeeping by nearly a quarter, the Financial Times reported Friday.