"What stopped Japan from intercepting North Korean missile?" Topic

"The altitude and speed of Hwasong-12 would have made it very difficult to destroy missile in flight, while failure would have been embarrassing for Japan and encouraging to North Korea. Julian Ryall reports from Tokyo.

In the aftermath of North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile across Japan early on Tuesday morning, the Japanese government went to great lengths to reassure the public that it is taking all the necessary steps to protect them. In truth, however, there was effectively very little that the Japanese military could have done to neutralize this latest provocation by Pyongyang…"
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Armand

Plus shoot something down and you have bits of it falling all over the place.

If you know at launch the trajectory and target point and that the missile carries no explosive payload, why tip your hand to other major players of what you can or can't do when you really need to do it.

I'd say that Major Mie has the gist of it.

Perhaps. But with their Aegis too far south to have helped, I think they also – simply – lacked the ability, whether they'd have wanted to or not.

I think VVV Reply has it. If your timing is off & you hit it in wrong place in boost phase you suddenly have potentially thousand pound pieces falling on your own terrain.

Was it a school day in Japan? If so, most girls would be in class or cram school and thus would not have had time to start up their mechas.