The US does not want to be seen handing out nukes to other countries so that said countries could advance a US agenda.Sallokin said:Or we could just, you know, give them to them on the DL. It would serve our interests as much as theirs
As was mentioned briefly, Japan is considered a de-facto nuclear state due to the fact that they have the raw materials, technical knowledge, and financial capital to produce a bomb in less than a year if they were so inclined. But for various reasons, some of which should be pretty obvious, they do not yet have that inclination.