TOKYO -- Japan's National Security Council will consider having the country secure the capability to strike enemy missile bases in response to an imminent attack, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday after the group met to discuss North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch.

"We reaffirmed that we will consider all possible options, including enemy base strike capabilities," in a planned update of Japan's national security strategy, Kishida told reporters.

Tokyo is analyzing Tuesday's launch by Pyongyang with an eye on the possibility that the test involved a submarine-launched ballistic missile, he said.

"For the security of Japan and the region, we cannot overlook North Korea's striking progress in nuclear and missile-related technology," Kishida said.

Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno were away from Tokyo at the time of the launch for the first day of campaigning ahead of this month's lower house parliamentary election. Both cut short their speaking schedules and returned to the capital.

The prime minister said Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki was on call to handle any problems that arose in his absence.

"We were sufficiently prepared to manage crises," Kishida said. "We had made arrangements so that I could return to Tokyo immediately via a Self-Defense Forces plane in an emergency."

Kishida said North Korea's "striking progress" on missile technology cannot be overlooked. (KCNA)

Kishida was stumping for a candidate in Fukushima Prefecture when North Korea launched the missile around 10 a.m. Tuesday. After moving on to the city of Sendai for a speech, he canceled a planned stop in nearby Akita Prefecture and took a bullet train back to Tokyo, arriving about five hours after the launch.

Matsuno, who was campaigning in his home prefecture of Chiba, near Tokyo, interrupted his schedule to return to the capital, arriving at the prime minister's residence after 1 p.m.

Yukio Edano, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, criticized Kishida's stop in Sendai after the launch, as well as the decision to have the prime minister and chief cabinet secretary away from the capital at the same time.

Kishida "should have returned to Tokyo at the soonest possible time," Edano said.

Edano stressed that when he served as chief cabinet secretary under former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, one of the two always stayed in Tokyo.

This administration "doesn't pay enough attention to crisis management," he argued.