Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio told reporters that North Korea's continuous launches over the past few days are unacceptable.

Kishida said, "North Korea has conducted repeated ballistic missile launches in recent days. This is an outrage and should never be tolerated. I have already instructed the relevant bodies to check whether there was any damage, to provide appropriate information to the public, and to analyze all that information."

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu says the government has already lodged a strong protest against North Korea's missile launches through a diplomatic channel in Beijing.

Matsuno confirmed that North Korea had launched multiple ballistic missiles on Thursday morning, including what may have been an inter-continental ballistic missile.

North Korea is believed to have launched several ballistic missiles on Thursday morning. Japanese officials are trying to determine the latest details.

Japan's Defense Ministry says a number of missiles flew toward the Sea of Japan from around 7:40 a.m.

Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio told reporters that North Korea's continuous launches over the past few days are unacceptable.

Kishida said, "North Korea has conducted repeated ballistic missile launches in recent days. This is an outrage and should never be tolerated. I have already instructed the relevant bodies to check whether there was any damage, to provide appropriate information to the public, and to analyze all that information."

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu has said that North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles on Thursday morning, including one that may have been an inter-continental ballistic missile.

He said none are reported to have flown inside Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has told reporters that one of the missiles launched by North Korea on Thursday morning may have been an inter-continental ballistic missile.

Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has condemned North Korea's missile launches on Thursday morning.

Kishida called the repeated launches "outrageous" and totally unacceptable.

Japanese government officials say North Korea launched what may have been a ballistic missile Thursday morning.

But they confirmed that it did not fly over Japan, as earlier feared. Japan's Defense Ministry has confirmed that the missile has disappeared over the Sea of Japan.

The Japan Coast Guard says North Korea has launched a suspected third ballistic missile this morning. The second and third projectiles appear to have fallen.

The Japan Coast Guard says a suspected North Korean ballistic missile appears to have come down.

It is calling on vessels at sea to keep up with the latest information.

Former Japanese prime minister Aso Taro has visited South Korea and met with President Yoon Suk-yeol. Analysts say the aim is to see if South Korea is interested in holding a summit with Japan.

South Korea's presidential office says Aso told Yoon their countries should continue dialogue and cooperation.

US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has suggested it is important to seek deterrence not only on military terms but also on political and economic terms as China increases its military pressure on Taiwan.

Emanuel gave an exclusive interview with NHK on Wednesday.

A district court has ordered the Yamaguchi prefectural government to urge the governor to pay back 20.9 million yen, or about 142,000 dollars, that it spent to buy a luxury car for official use.

A resident, who is a former prefectural government employee, filed a lawsuit over the prefecture's purchase of a Toyota Century as its official car in 2020.

Japan's health ministry says it confirmed 6,346 new cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The daily tally is up 1,999 from a week earlier, the 11th straight day of week-on-week increases.