I was in Tokyo when the North Koreans first
claimed to test a nuclear device and I was in Tokyo when they fired an
intercontinental missile across Japan in early April this year.
The national Japanese TV news shows had roughly ten minutes coverage about the imminent event and the modest military preparations. When it happened there was about 15 minutes of news reporting and no discussion. No experts, no questions, nothing.
An in-law who lives on the Northern Japan Sea in a small town closer to North Korea says his town had a siren go off and their TV news discussed the event more extensively. Nearly 40% of Japanese live in the Tokyo area so my experience is more like the Japanese norm.
What the Japanese actually saw on the news is irrelevant to the issue.
If Fidel Castro, a similarly monstrous communist tyrant who starves and enslaves his own people, had tested a nuclear weapon and fired a missile over the United States, the U.S. would not tolerate it for five minutes. Remember half a century ago when Castro just put missiles on his island, but didn't test them.
Why the difference between North Korea and Cuba? The Japanese people are genuinely pacifist, 98% of them. They do what pacifists do. They ignore danger, ostrich style. Their government knows its people and does nothing to oppose the pacifist position. The Japanese government could never openly ask for American protection until they are actually attacked by North Korea.
Now you know something about the world that few people know.