[WASHINGTON] Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he cannot envision not needing security backing from the United States, he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Tuesday that also touched on trade and other issues.

"I cannot conceive of any situation within the foreseeable future when the US presence wouldn't be necessary," he told the Journal in response to a question about whether US troops should leave the Asian nation to defend itself, an idea that has surfaced from Republican Donald Trump in the US presidential campaign.

REUTERS