Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Tag: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Japan’s Effort to Manage the Growing Problems of Space

May 9, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by Robert Farley April 23, 2021 (thediplomat.com)

• Much like the United States and Western Europe, the Japanese economy requires spaced-based communications technology to knit together the fabric of its industrial base. By some estimates, Japan has the fourth most orbital satellites in the world. Consequently, Japan’s Ministry of Defense is collaborating its civilian space agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), to establish a ‘Space Operations Squadron’ (SOS) within the Air-Self-Defense Force. The SOS expects to achieve operation readiness by 2023.

• The duties of the 100 member Space Operations Squadron will be largely defensive, working closely with U.S., German, and French space organizations. It will monitor potentially hostile foreign satellites and track space debris.

• Japan has not undertaken an anti-satellite weapons test, and the development of offensive anti-satellite technology may not conform with Japan’s constitutional framework. The legacy of World War II continues to loom large in East Asia. It is difficult to imagine that an ASAT test would be well-received either inside or outside of Japan. It is not difficult to imagine that Japan’s SOS could profitably share responsibilities with the U.S. Space Force in ways that would enhance the latter’s counter-space capabilities.

• On the civilian side, Japan has taken the lead on developing techniques for “cleaning” space of human-made debris and junk with several private firms collaborating with JAXA on using alternative techniques for clean-up, from magnetic docking systems to electromagnetic tethering to lasers.

• Japan’s highly advanced technological base makes it an enormous potential space power. The Space Operations Squadron may be the first indication of Japan flexing its “space muscles” as the strategic situation with China in the Indo-Pacific evolves.

As one of the world’s most technologically advanced societies, Japan is as dependent upon access to space as any country in the world. Much like the United States and Western Europe, the Japanese economy requires spaced-based communications technology to knit together the fabric of its industrial base. Indeed, by some estimates Japan has the fourth most orbital satellites in the world. Although the Japanese Self-Defense Forces do not operate in the same geographic scope as their U.S. or European counterparts, they still require satellite technology for communications and surveillance purposes.

Consequently, Japan has steadily increased its institutional military engagement with space, allowing the Ministry of Defense to collaborate with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the civilian space agency, for the first time in 2012. Japan also established a Space Operations Squadron (SOS) within the Air-Self-Defense Force in May 2020, with expected operational readiness in 2023. The squadron will have 100 members by the time it stands up. The portfolio of the squadron, which seems to most closely resemble the former Air Force Space Command in the United States, includes liaising with U.S., German, and French space organizations.

As framed thus far, the responsibilities of the Space Operations Squadron will be largely defensive, including the tracking of satellites and space debris in order to avoid collisions, as well as the monitoring of potentially hostile foreign satellites. Japan has not undertaken an anti-satellite test, and it is unclear how the development of offensive anti-satellite technology would sit within Japan’s constitutional framework, but the legacy of World War II continues to loom large in East Asia, and it is difficult to imagine that an ASAT test would be well-received either inside or outside of Japan. It is not difficult to imagine, however, that Japan’s SOS could profitably share responsibilities with the U.S. Space Force in ways that would enhance the latter’s counter-space capabilities — as suggested by the graphic below, which outlines a plan for enhancing space situational awareness (SSA) between, JAXA, the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MOD), and U.S. forces.

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Japan Becomes the Latest Country That’s Prepping to Fight World War 3 in Space

January 29, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Jasper Hamill January 20, 2020 (metro.co.uk)

• Currently, the idea of space warfare involves rival nations destroying or jamming each other’s satellites. Whilst this would knock out communications on the ground and potentially cause economic damage, it would not actually kill civilians on Earth. But U.S. intelligence agencies have said that both China and Russia would have ‘destructive’ space weapons within a few years that can interfere, disable or destroy satellites and spacecraft. Global commercial interests such as the British space trade association ‘UK Space’, who anticipate a lot of sophisticated technology going into orbit in the future, want “somebody out there who is going to protect the interests of all in space.”

• On January 20th, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (pictured above) said in a policy speech marking the start of the 2020 parliamentary session that the ‘Space Domain Mission Unit’ will launch in April as part of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force. Abe said that Japan’s space domain force will defend itself from cyberspace threats and protect its satellites, and ‘drastically bolster capability and system in order to secure superiority’ in those areas. The unit will cooperate with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and with the US Space Command. Abe has pushed for Japan’s Self-Defense Force to bolster cooperation and weapons compatibility with the US.

• Will Whitehorn, president of UK Space, advocates for the establishment of a UK space force to get ready to fight terrorists and wage war in the heavens. Industry leaders fear that terrorists and hostile nation-states will be able to wreak economic havoc by targeting communications satellites. Speaking at the UK Space Conference, Whitehorn said, “We are about to go through an industrial revolution in space. …We are at the stage where a lot of technologies have been developed …(and) a lot of the industrial processes or necessities that we will need are going to be …in that hostile environment in space.” “[W]e have to be able to defend ourselves in space. …”[A] time [is] coming when having a co-ordinated approach to space across all of our military is going to be important.”

The Space Domain Mission Unit will launch in April as part of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force, Abe said in a policy speech marking the start of the year’s parliamentary session today. He said Japan must also defend itself from threats in cyberspace and protects its satellites. A number of nations are now developing space weapons, with concerns growing that China and Russia are seeking ways to interfere, disable or destroy spacecraft.

Japan will ‘drastically bolster capability and system in order to secure superiority’ in those areas, Abe said. The unit will cooperate with the US Space

Command that Trump established in August, as well as Japan’s space exploration agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Abe has pushed for Japan’s Self-Defense Force to expand its international role and capability by bolstering cooperation and weapons compatibility with the US. It will also work alongside American troops and as it grows concerned about the increasing capabilities of China and North Korea. Abe, in marking Sunday’s 60th anniversary of the signing of Japan-U.S. security treaty, vowed to bolster Japan’s capability and cooperation with the U.S., including in the areas of space and cybersecurity.

The UK needs to build a space force and get ready to fight terrorists and wage war in the heavens, industry leaders have warned. In the future, terrorists and nation-states will be able to wreak economic havoc by targeting communications satellites. The incoming president of UK Space, Will Whitehorn, has said ‘we will see and should see the creation of a space force in the UK’ to help protect the nation against these new threats. Speaking at the UK Space Conference in Newport, the former president of Virgin Galactic said: ‘My view is that as we go forward, there clearly has to be a complete and utter co-ordination of the way that government at all levels responds to the industrialisation of space. ‘We are about to go through an industrial revolution in space, and it will be nothing short of that. ‘We are at the stage where a lot of technologies have been developed that can do many of the things – that if you were listening to Greta at the UN yesterday, or you see what is going on in the reality of climate change – a lot of the industrial processes or necessities that we will need are going to be up there, in that hostile environment in space.

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