North Korean Missile Tests Put Japan on the Defensive

Anyone wondering how seriously Japan treated the salvo of ballistic missiles that North Korea fired its way Wednesday should consider this: National broadcaster NHK canceled the daily installment of its wildly popular morning TV drama to make way for continuous news coverage.

The last time NHK saw fit to cancel the show, which is part of the morning routine for millions of Japanese, was in 1995, when a massive earthquake devastated the port city of Kobe. North Korea’s rockets may have landed short of Japan, but they still made a strong impression on a country with a collective loathing for its Stalinist neighbor.

Japan immediately slapped sanctions on Pyongyang, notably barring a North Korean cargo and passenger ferry from docking for the next six months. But Japan’s trade with North Korea has shrunk by half in the last four years, and the volume is too small to provide much leverage over the regime.

Instead, Japan has focused on building a capability to shoot down incoming missiles, as well as proceeding with a faster, deeper integration of its military alliance with the United States.

“In addition to building monitoring radar networks, we would like to cooperate with the United States and put our joint missile interception into shape as quickly as possible,” Fukushiro Nukaga, the head of Japan’s Defense Agency, told lawmakers after the North Korean tests.

Japan and the U.S. already have been pushing ahead on missile defense, expanding budgets for development and announcing new plans for deployment. North Korea’s latest missile test only reinforced the Japanese view of the regime in Pyongyang as a dangerous belligerent, sweeping away any remaining serious opposition to missile defense.

Kim Jong Il’s regime is Villain No. 1 in Japan, and it wears the black hat in another -- real-life -- national drama here: the kidnapping of 13 Japanese citizens during the Cold War. North Korea admitted in 2002 to holding them captive and forcing them to teach Japanese language and customs to its spies.

Five of the victims have been released since then, but Tokyo has not been satisfied with North Korea’s insistence that the other eight are dead. Many here also believe that the real number of abductees is much higher, and the issue has touched a deep nerve among the Japanese.

For its part, North Korea denounces Japan for what it says is a refusal to atone for the suffering it inflicted on the Korean peninsula during its 1910-45 occupation.

Given the bad blood, the Japanese took the provocative missile tests this week as being completely in character for North Korea. The Japanese were not caught by surprise, as they had been in 1998 when North Korea fired a Taepodong 1 missile over Japan.

Until then, Japan had taken a long look at missile defense and, wary of Chinese sensitivities about a military buildup, said no thanks.

“The missile defense talks were dead in 1998 -- the Japanese thought it was too provocative,” said Lance Gatling, an American aerospace consultant in Tokyo who worked at the time for Raytheon, a missile defense contractor.

“But everything changed after the North Korean test. People would jokingly say to us: ‘How much did you have to pay those guys to fire that missile?’ ”

Still, Japan moved slowly, agreeing at first to a research phase only. In addition to worries about juicing an arms race in East Asia, it was uncertain whether a constitutional restriction against participating in collective self-defense meant Japan would have to distinguish between missiles fired at the nation and those aimed at an ally.

Those doubts have been eroded by the deteriorating relations with North Korea and by growing unease over China’s arms buildup.

Japan’s spending on missile defense is growing even as it cuts its overall defense budget. Research has given way to acceptance of the idea of having missiles on its soil. And restrictions on military exports were lifted to allow Japanese companies to share technology with U.S. firms.

When the U.S. Navy cruiser Shiloh tested its sea-based interceptor missiles off Hawaii last month, a Japanese Aegis ship participated.

“The real wake-up call for Japan came in 1998, and the push for a missile shield is now well underway,” said Peter Beck at the Seoul office of the International Crisis Group.

“But the Japanese have an obsession with North Korea. And by firing these missiles, North Korea has shown itself to be a clear and present danger that provides political cover for the hard-liners in Japan.”