Defence minister Itsunori Onodera urged caution as Japan’s start of lower house election campaigns coincides with one of the regime’s main anniversaries.
Kim Jong-un’s reclusive regime is known to mark significant events with massive weapons tests – such as on September 9 last year, North Korea’s founding anniversary, when the state conducted its fifth nuclear test.
Mr Onodera said October 10 marks the beginning of the North Korean communist party and says he is worried the regime will stage another test.
He said: “I understand it is an important anniversary for North Korea. We would like to maintain a sense of urgency.”
North Korea’s anniversary will occur on the same date as when campaigns for parliament’s lower house election will begin in Japan, 12 days after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the chamber on Thursday.
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Tensions on the Korean peninsula has increased ever since Kim Jong-un conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date on September 3.
The show of military muscle lead to a fresh round of United Nations General Council approved sanctions against the regime.
But defiant North Korea refuse to stop, and on Friday Pyongyang threatened to test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
US President Donald Trump has also raised the stakes with insults against North Korea and several of its leaders.
Mr Onodera’s warning that North Korea will stage some sort of weapons test on October 10 echoes a recent comment by South Korean national adviser Chung Eui-yong.
Mr Eui-yong said he expected Pyongyang to act around October 10 and 18 during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, without providing further detail.
October 18 marks the start of China’s all-important Communist Party Congress.
North Korea has launched a series of ballistic missiles this year, including two over Japan in recent weeks, despite international pressure.
China, North Korea’s main ally and trading partner, has called for calm and urged that dialogue is the only way to end the crisis.
China’s United Nations ambassador Liu Jieyi said earlier this week: “We want things to calm down. It’s getting too dangerous and it’s in nobody’s interest.
“We certainly hope that the United States and North Korea will see that there is no other way than negotiations to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula … The alternative is a disaster.”
But Japan has tended to support Washington’s more robust approach.
Mr Abe called for more pressure to be put on North Korea in order to convince the country to end its nuclear and missile programs.