After North Korea's July 5 missile tests, Japan, for the first time since 1945, is asking America to beef up its military presence in Japan. Why? Because Japan's hedging and tardiness in relation to missile defense has left its cities more vulnerable than they need be. That risks encouraging Pyongyang in its dangerous nuclear and missile brinkmanship.
Senior U.S. and Japanese officials met in Washington on Aug. 7-8. The Japanese apparently asked the United States to send to Japan an additional U.S. warship equipped with the sophisticated Aegis radar system and the interceptor missile SM-3 (Standard Missile 3). This is to fill a gap, estimated to be some 18 months, before the first Japanese Aegis destroyer can be equipped with SM-3s.
These Japanese and American warships can help track missiles, but are not yet confident they can shoot them down. Still, there is reason for hope. In June, the USS Shiloh, one of three U.S. Aegis warships fitted with SM-3s, successfully intercepted a test missile. That was the seventh successful shootdown in a series of eight tests. (The ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California have been much less successful.)