Nearly 15 minutes before this news was confirmed by major news outlets such as BBC, CNN, and Reuters, @jasohill, a photographer of Hachimantai, Japan, broke the news to Twitter.
jasohill This is for real folks. NORTH KOREA has just launched it missile.
Popular Twitter news service BNO was one minute behind that tweet with its first tweet on the news:
BreakingNews FLASH -- TOKYO -- JAPANESE GOVERNMENT: NORTH KOREA HAS LAUNCHED ROCKET
@jasohill went on to provide these first-hand accounts from Japan:
Other Twitterers in the region noted the news, many of them breathing a sigh of relief when it became apparent they were out of harm's way.
akikohayashi (Tokyo, Japan) Missile: It's gone. Relieved. But how many more times do we have to experience the similar situation? This is enough. kyotonils (Kyoto, Japan) NK launches missile and I'm 2 stories undereground in retail bunker (Hankyu). Commerce seemingly unaffected. Chou creme hoarding imminent... SirSteven (Suzhou, China) North Korea has fired off its rocket-missile-satellite thingy, and no-one bothered to shoot it down... *yawn* Mitchell1986 (Cheongju, South Korea) The missile has been launched.....and the world didn't end (at least for us in Asia)...now to move on.... kkongchi (Seoul, South Korea) I'm living in Seoul, Korea and All Media are saying on N.Korea's Rocket. but It seems that they launched Not Missile but Satellite. naotakahashi (Gumma, Japan) Seemingly North Korea's "Flying Object" flew over Japan without any droppings.