Japan's Abe says U.S. presence needed, vows to push trade deal - WSJ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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 U.S. presence wouldn’t be necessary," he told the Journal in response to a question about whether U.S. troops should leave the Asian nation to defend itself, an idea that has surfaced from Republican Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential campaign.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by James Dalgleish)