Laxity About Korean Missile Upsets Japanese

The Japanese government found itself looking a bit red-faced Tuesday after the revelation that defense agencies knew about a surface-to-ship missile launch by North Korea on Monday but failed to inform the prime minister or the Cabinet until the following day.

Although the launch of what South Korean defense analysts said was a Chinese-made Silkworm missile with a range of about 50 miles turned out to be relatively benign -- aimed more at gaining global attention than at hitting any particular target, analysts said -- it underscored anew Japan’s poor emergency response system. There was some disagreement over the type of missile fired.

“Japan has a very weak sense of crises,” said Zenji Katagata, president of System Research Center, a crisis management firm. “They assume North Korea is still crying wolf.... Anything could happen, and this could have turned into a real catastrophe.”

A similar knowledge gap occurred in August 1998 when North Korea launched a far more dangerous long-range ballistic missile, the Taepodong 1, that flew over mainland Japan before part of it landed in the Pacific Ocean.

A shocked Japanese public learned that Washington had warned Japan’s Defense Agency weeks earlier of the likelihood of a launch but that rival departments within the agency failed to share information with one another, let alone government leaders. Then-Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and his Cabinet were briefed several hours after the launch.

A defense spokesman said Tuesday that this time, midlevel analysts within his agency didn’t believe the information was important enough to report to senior officials.

“They judged it wasn’t of interest to the director or the Cabinet,” said Ichiro Imaizumi, declining to comment further.

A Japanese coast guard spokeswoman said her agency learned of the launch only by reading a Japanese news report Tuesday. And the offices of the prime minister and Foreign Ministry said they were briefed only by “a section that handles information” Tuesday morning, or about 16 hours after the launch.

Experts say the issue speaks to a broader problem endemic to many Japanese organizations, in which fuzzy lines of responsibility, territoriality and a lack of urgency serve to undermine once-vaunted Japanese management systems.

In recent years, Japan has been hit by scandals involving everything from tainted milk and beef to spilled radioactive material and cover-ups in various industries, including its auto sector. The scandals have undermined people’s pride in Japanese quality and organizations.

At the same time, politicians have sought to strengthen the prime minister’s office, which has traditionally played second fiddle to bureaucrats. But it remains far weaker than its overseas counterparts.

Haruo Shimada, a professor at Keio University who served as an envoy to Washington two years ago, said this weakness isn’t well appreciated overseas, leading other capitals to request changes in the Japanese government that the prime minister can’t easily bring about.

“It’s not that surprising that the prime minister’s office didn’t function -- that’s known -- but that the defense guys on the front line didn’t report the information is a real concern,” Shimada said. “You can’t fix this sort of thing in one stroke. There’s need for a total overhaul.”

Several government agencies and analysts downplayed the information gap Tuesday, characterizing the launch as a routine North Korean exercise and therefore of no great concern.

“The missile wasn’t aimed at Japanese territory or any military ship, which explains why most people were relatively calm and didn’t overreact this time,” said Kaoru Murakami, an independent defense analyst.

That said, information should have reached senior officials, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, particularly given the growing international tensions over North Korea.

Part of the problem, said analysts, is that Japan has no clearly defined North Korea policy. Although recent concern about Japanese abducted by North Korea has hardened popular opinion, the government remains hesitant about acting in any way that might provoke the North, these analysts said.

There’s also a cultural tendency in Japan to downplay the unpleasant, added Katagata, which undermines the nation’s ability to face and prepare for real danger.

“We have a proverb: ‘You forget the hotness once it passes your throat,’ ” he said. “People have forgotten how hot things were. In addition, those responsible when lapses occur aren’t really held accountable.”