A panel of the Liberal Democratic Party has drafted a bill that would allow Japan to use space for military purposes within the realm of self-defense, shifting from the current stance that space projects only have civilian roles, party officials said Friday.
The panel plans to formalize the bill by August after consulting ruling coalition lawmakers before submitting it to an extraordinary Diet session in the fall.
The panel presented the draft to a Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) committee meeting to promote space development.