On Monday, Tokyo activated the government’s J-alert system to simulate a missile launch towards the city, calling for people to “evacuate calmly inside a building or underground.” 

Around 350 people participated in the evacuation drills in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward, as well as a local amusement park, taking shelter in a nearby subway station and buildings, according to local media. 

It is the first drill of its kind ever for Tokyo, local media reports, and comes amid heightened tensions over North Korea, which has been actively testing its nuclear and ballistic missiles. Several projectiles launched last year flew over Japan.

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“A missile from North Korea would arrive in less than 10 minutes and the first alert would come about three minutes after launch, which gives us only around five minutes to find shelter,” Hiroyuku Suenaga, a Japanese government official, told volunteers after the exercise, as cited by Reuters.

The precautionary measure did not go over well with some people in the Japanese capital. A small group of protesters denounced the drills, saying they were merely “a way to promote a war,” AFP reports, citing demonstrators. One protester said no one would survive either way, according to the news agency.

Japan’s first-ever drills for the evacuation of Japanese civilians were conducted in March of last year in the coastal city of Oga. In April 2017, a Japanese civil security website also warned that a North Korean missile could reach the country in 10 minutes and issued a special guidance with recommendations.

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