Space tie-up with US to ‘counter threats’

Japan said on Monday it will step up its defense capability in space and improve its ability to detect and track missiles, while cooperating with the United States in response to what it called a growing threat from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and China. A revised basic space policy adopted by the government’s strategic space development panel endorses plans for a number of small-scale intelligence-gathering satellites to quickly assess DPRK’s missile movements.

In civil aerospace, Japan will seek to cooperate with the US in sending astronauts on a US lunar mission. The revised policy was adopted by the Cabinet on Tuesday. Japan aims to double the scale of its space industry from the current 1.2 trillion yen ($11 billion) by the early 2030s.