Japan will conduct its first test of the U.S.-developed SM-3 missile interceptor from a destroyer later this year, a Defense Ministry official said Thursday.

The ministry spokesman, however, denied a report that Japan and the United States plan to hold a joint missile defense exercise off the Japanese coast in January.

Japan will conduct the launch test from the Aegis-radar-equipped destroyer Kongo at an unspecified U.S. location in the Pacific Ocean around December, he said. The mass-circulation Yomiuri newspaper said the test would be conducted off Hawaii.