I guess we can all go back to bed now...US: North Korea missile test is 'routine' Yah,I'm sure that that will help the Japanese sleep well at night.And IIRC,the kidnapping of innocent Japanese civilians was "routine" too.
Yeah, somehow I have trouble believing that the NoKers would launch missiles at Japan just because that's what it's time to do.
It might have been linked to this...
Japan accused of passing "imperialist law" (26 May, 2007, Xinhua)
Note: The above is from Communist China's state-run news agency.
Basically, the LDP, Japan's ruling party, has been pushing for a lot of Constitutional revisions, one of which would be changing Article 9, the article which outlaws war, prohibits them from having an actual military (their rather formidible military is currently called the "Self Defense Force"), and bars them from intervening abroad. They recently passed a law which would allow Constitutional amendment by popular referendum, and the NKs are accusing them of using that to ram through a repeal of Article 9.