The United States has asked to install anti-ballistic missile radars in Japan, following North Korea's nuclear weapons test in October and missile launches in July, a report said. US military troops and the US Department of Defense have lodged a request with Japan's Defense Agency to locate a radar in Japan aimed at counter-attacking inter-continental ballistic missiles, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported, without clarifying sources.
Japan's Defense Agency, following the US approach, is considering the plan, in light of Japan-US Security Treaty, which demands "providing security of Japan and keeping peace in the Far East" as conditions for offering US troops facilities in Japan, the report said.
Japan was prompted to boost its missile defenses in cooperation with the United States in 1998 when North Korea sent a suspected long-range missile over its main island and into the Pacific.
North Korea's October 9 atom bomb test, in addition to its July 5 firing of seven missiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), also fueled the drive for the joint missile scheme.
Japan's post-World War II pacifist constitution bans waging war as means of resolving international conflicts, and providing support to foreign troops except for the purpose of Japan's self-defense is politically controversial.
