Japan on Tuesday adopted its first space security blueprint with the aim of better utilizing the frontier for defense purposes over the next 10 years, in response to the rising military use of outer space by China and Russia.
In the roadmap, drawn up based on the National Security Strategy updated in December 2022, the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has also committed to advancing Japanese defense projects by making use of private-sector space technologies.
The main pillar of the blueprint is a plan for strengthening information-gathering systems to enhance the effectiveness of counterstrike, or enemy base strike, capabilities, which Japan pledged late last year to acquire while maintaining its war-renouncing Constitution.