Mick Hartley

There you go. Perfect synchronicity:

North Korea has test-fired a ballistic missile which travelled 1,000km (620 miles) before landing in Japanese waters, the South and Japan say.

The missile was launched off the North's east coast early on Wednesday….

The Japanese defence ministry said the missile landed inside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the 200-nautical mile of ocean around a country over which it has jurisdiction.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it posed a grave threat to Japan's security, calling it an "unforgiveable act of violence". He said Tokyo had protested strongly against it.

But, cometh the hour, cometh the woman. From the Times (£):

A woman who questions Japan’s widely acknowledged role in Second World War atrocities and who believes that it should consider acquiring nuclear weapons is expected to be named today as the country’s defence minister.

Japanese newspapers claim that Tomomi Inada will be appointed as part of a cabinet reshuffle, the first since Shinzo Abe’s victory in parliamentary elections last month….

Ms Inada, 57, a close ideological ally of Mr Abe, moves from the job of policy chief in his Liberal Democratic Party. She is associated with Nippon Kaigi, a right-wing organisation dedicated to refuting what it holds to be lies told about the wartime conduct of the Imperial Army.

She insists that the “comfort women” forced to service Japanese troops during the war — in effect sex slaves, many of them from Korea — were willing prostitutes legally recruited. She also questions estimates of the number of Chinese civilians killed by Japanese soldiers in the Rape of Nanking, and the legality of the post-war tribunal which convicted and hanged Japanese leaders as war criminals.

A regular worshipper at the Yasukuni shrine, where Japan’s war dead are revered as Shinto gods, Ms Inada has also been photographed alongside Kazunari Yamada, leader of the far-right National Socialist Japanese Workers’ Party. He wears a swastika armband and boasts of his friendship with neo-Nazis around the world, insists that the Holocaust “couldn’t have happened” and speaks of “what great things Hitler did”.

In 2011 Ms Inada was barred from entering South Korea for her revisionist views of history. It is not clear whether this ban will be lifted if she is appointed defence minister.

In a parliament with a low proportion of female MPs, she is sometimes spoken of as a potential national leader. Mr Abe said in 2010: “When a Japanese woman becomes prime minister for the first time, it will be Tomomi Inada.”

Given North Korea's reckless provocation, a hard-liner like Inada will surely now be a shoe-in.

Update: from South Korea's Chosun Ilbo:

Japan in its latest defense white paper puts an exceptionally high estimate on North Korea's nuclear capabilities, possibly to justify a push for rearmament.

Japan's Defense Ministry publishes the white paper every year with estimates of the security threats faced by the country…

"Changes in the balance of power" due to North Korea's provocations and China's military expansion are cited as the biggest threats to security in Northeast Asia.

The white paper refers to the North Korean threat as a "grave and urgent" while accusing China of attempting "unilateral and uncompromising" moves in the South China Sea.

One diplomatic source said, "There is an implied view that the fundamental cause of tensions in Northeast Asia is Chinese hegemony, while North Korea has become a concrete and specific threat."