Highlighting its uses for defense, Keidanren repeatedly released policy documents calling on the Japanese government to loosen rules limiting use of space.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressing the 2023 G7 Summit. Photo from the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan’s X account.

In July 1969, the US’s Apollo 11 mission accomplished the first ever moon landing. Two months earlier, the Japanese Diet had unanimously passed a resolution on the peaceful use of space.

“Our country’s development and utilization of objects launched into space beyond the major part of the Earth’s atmosphere, and of rockets used for their launch, shall be conducted solely for peaceful purposes, to promote academic progress, improve our people’s standard of living, and contribute to the welfare of human society, while also contributing to the advancement of industrial technology and international cooperation,” the resolution read.

However, 37 years later, in June 2006, Keidanren criticized this resolution as hindering security.

“Ensuring citizens’ safety and security is becoming increasingly important in light of changes in the security environment, such as threats of terrorism and missile attacks, as well as responses to large-scale disasters and environmental issues,” it wrote in a policy document titled “Proposals for Promoting Space Development and Utilization in Japan.”

“Rapidly acquiring valuable information through observation, surveillance, and positioning in space is essential for security and crisis management,” the document continued.

“One obstacle is the 1969 Diet resolution on the peaceful use of space, which restricted Japan’s space utilization to ‘non-military’ purposes,” it asserted. “In 2003, Japan launched an intelligence-gathering satellite. However, it was constrained by the principle of generalization (limiting satellite performance to general application), and its latent capabilities may not have been fully realized.”

Diet resolution in only four hours

Two years later, in 2008, Japan enacted its Basic Space Act, enabling usage of space for military purposes. The law was passed with only four hours of deliberation in the Diet.

The law newly established the position of Minister of State for Space Policy, to which Fumio Kishida was appointed. The government’s expert committee on space development strategy included Keidanren Chairman Fujio Mitarai, who was also chairman of Canon, as well as Toyota Motor Corporation CEO Katsuaki Watanabe and Mizuho Financial Group CEO Terunobu Maeda.

In fiscal year 2009, Japan’s Ministry of Defense included a space budget — totalling 15.8 billion yen — in its budget for the first time.

Never one to rest on its laurels, Keidanren continuously rolled out proposals to capitalize on the new space law. In February, it released a document titled “Form a Strategic Space Policy Framework and Establish an Effective Implementation System” and, in May of that year, another titled “Opinion on the Basic Space Plan.”

In April 2010, it released a policy document titled “Proposals for Promoting Space Development and Utilization as a National Strategy.” The document emphasized that space development contributes to national security.

“Amid the ongoing tensions in Northeast Asia, leveraging the unique capability of observing Earth on a large scale from space is effective for security purposes,” it read. “Using eyes and ears from space to conduct surveillance, monitoring, and intelligence gathering is crucial for detecting threats as quickly as possible, thereby making the development of a responsive space system indispensable.”

Top 10 companies receiving defense-related procurement orders from the Japanese government from 2006 to 2010.

The upper section shows order value, and the lower section shows donations from the company to the National Political Association (a political finance organization that handles corporate and group donations to the LDP).

Note:
・Order values are compiled from Defense Agency materials, etc.
・Orders received and donations made by subsidiaries are consolidated to the current parent company.
・Former company names have been aligned with current company names.

(Originally published in Japanese on October 26, 2024. )

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