Tokyo Weekender - June 2017

AS KIM JONG UN CONTINUES
TO LAUNCH MISSILES, AND
THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT
RELEASES A GUIDE ON WHAT
TO DO IN THE CASE OF A
NUCLEAR ATTACK, WE DISSECT
THE MOTIVES AND OUTCOMES
OF THE RISING TENSIONS
Words by Alec Jordan
Walking through the arrivals section
of Narita Airport earlier this week,
I spotted a TV crew with mikes
and cameras at the ready, looking
for foreigners whose telegenic responses would
explain for the thousandth time what people are
looking for when they come to Japan. But along
with that group of interviewers was a more ominous
one: police and security forces conducting
random checks on foreigners and Japanese alike.
“North Korea fired another missile yesterday,”
the Chiba Prefecture police officer said apologetically
as he checked my papers and took down my
name. “Security is tightening up.”
It’s said – and rightly so – that Japan is one of
the safest countries in the world. But not too far
beyond its borders, the rising specter of missile
attacks from North Korea has the country weighing
the feasibility of missile defense systems and
its people worrying about just how quickly they
might be able to seek shelter if salvos of North Korean
missiles were fired at major Japanese cities.
The relationship between Japan and North
Korea has been fraught with distrust and resentment
since before the Korean War [see sidebar],
but North Korea’s current actions have brought
relations to what might be an all-time low. In this
year alone, the country has test-fired 11 missiles,
many of which have splashed down into the seas
around Japan. President Kim Jong Un boasts of his
country’s nuclear prowess, and promises to rain
down destruction on the nations that lie within
his missiles’ reach.
Along with the fear and anger comes
curiosity: what exactly does the Hermit
Nation want? According to Waseda