Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered the Self-Defense Forces on Friday to shoot down any part of a North Korean rocket that might fall toward Japanese territory.
The order is partly aimed at reducing public fears over what Japan, the United States and South Korea see as a test of Pyongyang's Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile, although the hermit state claims it is planning to send a satellite into space aboard a rocket.
With the reclusive state's planned launch expected in little over a week, Prime Minister Taro Aso gave the go-ahead earlier in the day during a Security Council meeting for the defense minister to issue an order based on Article 82-2, Paragraph 3 of the Self-Defense Forces Law.