Over the years, various suggestions have been made with a view to making the alliance more symmetrical, including that Japan become a “normal” country with a full panoply of military capabilities, even nuclear weapons. But such measures would raise more problems than they would solve.
多年来，为使同盟显得更加均衡而提出了种种建议，包括使日本成为一个拥有军事能力、甚至包括核武器的“正常”国家。但是这些措施所带来的问题远比它们所解决的问题多。即便日本贯彻这些措施，它的军事力量依然无法与美国相抗衡，也依然无法消除这种不对称。值得注意的是在冷战期间，美国的欧洲盟友也对依赖性和美国对它们的抛弃有着类似的担心，尽管它们自己的军事力量也很强。