The Air Self-Defense Force is expanding its operations in space to protect Japan’s satellites--increasingly important tools for the country’s security strategy--from “junk,” “killers” and “stalkers.”

“We would like to enhance our efforts in the new field of space,” Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, ASDF chief of staff, said at a news conference following his appointment in March.

In April, Uchikura expressed his intention to strengthen ASDF cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

According to JAXA, more than 12,000 satellites, including those owned by private companies, were registered around the world as of December 2021.

In recent years, the number has been increasing by more than 1,000 annually, JAXA said.

The industry ministry said the global number of satellite launches in 2021 was 14 times the figure for 2011.

Artificial satellites play a vital role not only in acquiring location information and enabling internet communications but also in supporting fighter jets and guiding missiles.

Satellites are also important for bolstering deterrence, and their destruction directly diminishes the country’s warfare capabilities.

North Korea has been developing satellites, apparently to increase the precision of its missiles.

In 2020, the Defense Ministry established the Space Operations Squadron at the Fuchu Air Base in Tokyo as the SDF’s first unit specialized in space.

In 2022, the ministry set up the Space Operations Group as a higher organization to command the squadron.

In March this year, the first Space Operations Squadron started its mission.

The second squadron was established at the Hofu Kita Air Base in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and the total number of personnel in the SDF space program has increased to around 200.

The first squadron’s mission is to monitor “space junk” flying at high speeds in outer space and to prevent collisions with Japanese satellites.

In a 2007 test, China used a ground-launched missile to destroy one of its own satellites, resulting in a large amount of debris being scattered in space.

Even space debris as small as a few millimeters wide can travel the distance between Tokyo and Osaka in one minute. A collision with a satellite would be catastrophic.

The first squadron gathers and analyzes information from JAXA, the U.S. military and private-sector radars for its mission. The SDF plans to eventually install its own radars.

The second squadron is currently preparing for its mission of searching for signs that other countries are interfering with Japanese satellites.

China and Russia are apparently developing space weapons, including “killer satellites” with robotic arms that can capture other countries’ satellites, as well as “stalker satellites” that can chase objects in space.

Some of these weapons are believed capable of disrupting communications between satellites and ground stations using radio wave jamming devices.

The second squadron will operate equipment to monitor such movements, but it does not possess the means to intercept or destroy objects in space.

The squadrons will alter the Japanese satellites’ orbit to avoid danger from space debris or if suspicious movements by foreign countries’ satellites, such as killer satellites, are detected, the SDF said.

“Evasion is the only and most effective way in space,” a senior SDF official said.

SPACE BATTLE CONCERNS

Yasuhito Fukushima, a senior research fellow at the National Institution for Defense Studies who specializes in space policy, said the United States has used satellite communications to operate unmanned aircraft since the late 1990s. The U.S. military has also utilized the Global Positioning System to guide bombs and other munitions.

Other nations, such as France, Russia and China, have introduced similar systems and followed suit.

“The number of countries with the capability to attack satellites has been increasing, raising concerns about space becoming a battlefield,” Fukushima said.

Under revised national security guidelines, the SDF possesses the capability to strike enemy bases that are preparing to attack Japan.

Kazuhito Suzuki, a member of the Cabinet Office’s Committee on National Space Policy and a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy, denies the need for Japan to possess such strike capabilities in space.

“Attacking a space system would not lead to an effective counterattack and would not deter the opponent from launching an attack,” Suzuki said.

Japan established the Basic Space Law in 2008, which expanded the scope of space development and utilization beyond nonmilitary purposes, paving the way for the SDF to engage in defense-related activities beyond Earth.

But some people have expressed concerns about the expansion of such SDF activities.

Yasunori Matogawa, a professor emeritus of space engineering at JAXA, said, “As military utilization expands (in space), Japan’s involvement in efforts to prevent an escalation into war is being questioned.

“Political efforts are important to actively explain Japan’s stance opposing war and take a leading role in discussions,” he said.