WASHINGTON: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that if US was attacked, all Japan would do is "sit at home and watch Sony television".
He expressed his frustration at a campaign event in Iowa on Friday, that the US is bound by a treaty to defend the Asian nation but that if America was attacked, the Japanese cannot help because of Article 9, which constitutionally forbids it to send armed forces overseas, The Telegraph reported.
"You know we have a treaty with Japan, where if Japan is attacked, we have to use the full force and might of the US. If we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to do anything. They can sit home and watch Sony television. What kind of deals are these?" Trump asked.
The US and Japan signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security on January 19, 1960, The Telegraph reported.
Trump added that the US protects Japan, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia and other nations, and "they don't pay anything near what it costs".
"They have to pay. Because this isn't 40 years ago. It's got to be a two-way street," The Telegraph quoted the Manhattan billionaire as saying.
However, his Japan comments were the latest attack from the Republican nominee, at the end of a week in which he had insulted the grieving parents of a Muslim American war hero, told a mother with a crying baby to leave one of his rallies and his polling numbers plummeted with the campaign reaching "crisis" levels.
There are currently 47,000 US military personnel stationed in Japan, and the alliance is crucial for America's Asia-Pacific strategy and security, The Telegraph added.
