North Korea has become Japan's main security concern in the post-Cold War era, as underscored by Pyongyang's July 5 test-firing of seven ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
The launches put the spotlight on Japan's plans for an elaborate antiballistic missile system, raising a key security question: Will the system, estimated to cost 1 trillion yen, actually work?
Japan plans to create a two-layer missile defense, composed of two types of intercepter missiles developed by the United States -- the Aegis destroyer-armed Standard Missile-3, designed to hit missiles in space, and ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, which have a 20-km range and are for hitting missiles descending in the atmosphere toward their target, assuming they got past the SM-3s.