North Korea has fired two rockets over Japan in recent months.
One of the rockets was an intercontinental ballistic missile fired in the direction of US territory Guam.
Japan did not attempt to shoot down the missiles on either occasion despite the flyover sparking sparking loudspeaker alerts and TV warnings telling citizens to take cover.
Minister of defence Itsunori Onodera today said that there was no need for action as the rockets didn’t pose a threat to Japan.
He said: “The recent missile tests by North Korea passed at high altitude and there was no fear of them falling in our territory or territorial waters so we did not shoot them down.
“Whether it is Japan or any other country, I think that shooting down a ballistic missile could be construed as a military action.
“Unless you judge it is an attack on your own country, I think it is difficult to shoot down such missiles.”
Mr Onodera has ruled out shooting down missiles in the future – giving Pyongyang the go ahead for further tests, sparking fears for World War 3 amid escalating tensions between the rogue state and America.
Just last month Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the nation “will not tolerate the repeated and excessive provocations”.
Earlier today Kim Jong-un threatened to being “nuclear clouds to Japan” if it doesn’t back down on sanctions against the communist state.
The North Korean leader issued the rounds of threats while blasting , calling him a “headless chicken” and “suicidal”.
Mr Abe used his speech at the UN last month to call on member states to block North Korea’s access to “goods, funds people and technology” if it continued to test nuclear weapons.
This sparked fury from Kim, who retaliated by saying: “Japan’s such rackets inciting the tension of the Korean peninsula is a suicidal deed that will bring nuclear clouds to the Japanese archipelago.
“No one knows when the touch-and-go situation will lead to a nuclear war, but if so, the Japanese archipelago will be engulfed in flames in a moment. This is too self-evident.”