Japan identifies 1,500 new missile shelters as ‘front line’ fears grow

The government launched a study in 2024 to expand the existing list of facilities where the public could take cover during an attack and has since confirmed 1,489 sites – including subway stations and underground car parks – as suitable for short-term protection.

The aim, the Sankei newspaper reported on March 12, was to integrate the new sites into the network of 61,142 designated shelter locations capable of protecting around 10.8 million people, slightly under 9 per cent of the population.

“I do not think that people in Tokyo or Osaka are too worried about missile attacks, but that is different in places that have in recent years become closer to what might be considered Japan’s ‘front lines’,” said Stephen Nagy, a professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University.

“These are the people who live on the outlying islands of Okinawa prefecture, such as Yonaguni Island.”

Nagy pointed out that the island was just 111km (69 miles) from Taiwan and hosted a Self-Defence Force base that would be equipped with Type-03 medium-range surface-to-air missiles by 2031 – a deployment confirmed by Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in February and which prompted an official protest from Beijing.

Residents of northern Honshu and Hokkaido also have reason for concern, Nagy said, as North Korean missiles had previously overflown the region before splashing down in the Pacific.

A Hwasong-12 missile crossed Hokkaido in 2017, triggering the J-Alert early warning system and causing widespread alarm. In October 2022, a North Korean ballistic missile flew over the Tohoku region.