"Suppose a missile was launched from North Korea aimed at the United States. If we didn't shoot it down, that would break up the alliance with the United Sates. But to shoot it down would be unconstitutional," said Futoshi Shibayama, a military affairs specialist at Aichi Gakuin University in Nagoya.
"I think we should try to introduce a new interpretation of the Japanese constitution," he said. "But this would be a big domestic controversy."
[snip]