On Aug. 10, North Korea made an unprecedented announcement that it would develop a plan to test-fire four Hwasong-12 ballistic missiles on a path it said would cross Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi prefectures, to land in the sea near the island of Guam.

The announcement of the detailed flight plan immediately raised a critical question in the minds of many Japanese: Would the nation's anti-ballistic missile defense systems be able to intercept the North Korean missiles?

Experts seem divided over the capabilities of the ¥1.6 trillion defense systems.