Here, a capacity crowd was regularly taking cover from a white missile heading for the stands.
Recognising the laser beam by its coded pulses, the helicopter's missile headed straight for the target.
Though a North Korean long-range missile headed for continental America would probably not pass over Japan, one headed for Hawaii might.
They will now have clear permission to shoot down a North Korean missile heading for America, or to aid an American ship under attack in waters near Japan.
Mr. Abe says this would allow Japanese forces to shoot down a North Korean missile heading toward the United States, something they cannot now legally do.
"There could very well be a missile heading in our direction as we speak," Senator James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said in a 45-minute debate.
In Canada, which might well have a role to play in tracking incoming missiles, officials are furious about a remark, by an American admiral, that a missile heading towards Ottawa might not be stopped unless Canada joins the shield.
As things stand, for instance, Japan may not shoot down a North Korean missile headed for the United States, or come to the aid of an American ship under attack.
North Korea is not known for subtlety in its propaganda videos, and the latest clip, published by the Uriminzokkiri outlet, shows a North Korean missile headed toward the U.S. territory of Guam, which Pyongyang has been threatening to "envelop" with missiles.
Some U.S. officials, including Adm. Timothy Keating, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, have said the United States has a capability to knock down any North Korean missile heading for U.S. territory.
