https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapons_program#De_facto_nuclear_state advises:
"On 29 March 2016, then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald
Trump suggested that Japan should develop its own nuclear weapons,
claiming that it was becoming too expensive for the US to continue to protect
Japan from countries such as China, North Korea, and Russia that already have
their own nuclear weapons.[50]
[endnote 50 is]
https://web.archive.org/web/20190611080231/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-japan-south-korea-might-need-nuclear-weapons/
"Donald Trump: Japan, South Korea might
need nuclear weapons
By Stephanie Condon
March 29, 2016 / CBS News
Republican
presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Tuesday night defended his assertion
that more countries, such as Japan, South Korea or even Saudi Arabia, may need
to develop their own nuclear weapons.
"You
have so many countries already -- China, Pakistan, you have so many countries,
Russia -- you have so many countries right now that have them," Trump said
in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin town hall televised by CNN. "Now, wouldn't you
rather, in a certain sense, have Japan have nuclear weapons when North Korea
has nuclear weapons?"
Trump said
that the United States spends too much money protecting countries like Japan
and Saudi Arabia, but "we can't afford to do it anymore."
CNN
moderator Anderson Cooper pointed out that it's been U.S. policy for decades to
prevent Japan from getting a nuclear weapon. Trump responded, "Maybe it's
going to have to be time to change, because so many people -- you have Pakistan
has it, you have China has it. You have so many other countries are now having
it."
Trump similarly
suggested that Japan and South Korea should develop nuclear weaponry
in an interview with the New York Times last week.
Following
Trump's remarks to the Times, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga
told reporters that his nation remains steadfastly against owning, making or
allowing nuclear weapons. He said this position will "remain an important
basic policy of the government."
Trump said
he's in favor of potentially seeing countries like Japan develop nuclear
weapons because "it's going to happen anyway."
"It's
only a question of time," he said. "They're going to start having
them or we have to get rid of them entirely.""
On 27 February 2022, former prime minister Shinzo Abe proposed that Japan should consider a nuclear sharing arrangement with the US similar to NATO.[51] This includes housing American nuclear weapons on Japanese soil for deterrence.[51] This plan comes in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[51][52] Many Japanese politicians consider Vladimir Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state to be a game changer.[52] "