Isabel Reynolds and Yuki Hagiwara report: Japan’s ruling party urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to consider building missile shelters and carrying out more evacuation drills in response to the growing threat from North Korea.

Television and other advertising should also be used to increase public awareness of the need to evacuate to a robust building or underground shopping center if a ballistic missile heads for Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party said in a proposal submitted to Abe on Thursday, hours after Kim Jong Un’s regime fired another volley of missiles.

Abe told the lawmakers submitting the proposal that he wanted to deal properly with making sure the public knows what to do in the event of a missile falling on Japan.

Nuclear-armed North Korea, which already possesses rockets that can reach Japan, has accelerated its missile-testing program this year. Abe’s government is considering how to bolster its existing two-layer missile-defense system, and his party has previously proposed obtaining the capacity to counter-attack.

“The country must take rapid and effective action to deal with the new level of threat from North Korea,” the LDP said in the document. A wide variety of evacuation drills should be held, including in densely populated areas … (read more)

via Stripes Japan