Japan and the United States held a joint missile defense exercise off the Japanese coast last week, a Defense Ministry official said Tuesday. The two countries held a regional ballistic missile defense drill on July 6, bringing together Aegis-radar equipped destroyers and early warning aircraft, or AWACS, according to a Japanese Defense Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity according to protocol. The allies practiced target-tracking and information-sharing during the exercise, she was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. She refused to disclose the location except that it was held «at sea and in air around Japan.»