On Thursday, the Japanese government sent an evacuation alert to residents of Hokkaido after detecting a North Korean missile. The alert only caused confusion as it was later discovered that the missile had fallen into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula and not on Japanese territory. People were angry for having received a false alarm and questioned the use of the J-alert system. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno defended the decision, saying the alert was “appropriate” given the country’s limited information at that time. However, last October, nine of Tokyo’s island towns and villages received erroneous alerts when North Korea fired a ballistic missile. This is not the first time that such an issue has occurred. North Korea fired an apparent new model missile on Thursday, which was detected by South Korean sources. The missile used solid propellants for the first time in an intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missile, according to analysts, and can help North Korea quickly deploy its missiles if there were a war.