Photo/Illutration An artist’s concept of a communication network based on satellite constellations (Provided by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Setting its sights on becoming a key player in the global space industry, Japan will set up a 1-trillion-yen ($6.47 billion) fund to achieve that goal.

The space strategy fund will be managed by the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency over a 10-year period to support technological innovation by companies and universities.

As early as this summer, JAXA will begin soliciting private-sector organizations that have the expertise to make things happen with the aim of bringing them aboard by the end of this fiscal year.

Specific areas of technological development will be decided at a meeting of the Committee on National Space Policy under the Cabinet Office this month at the earliest.

The science ministry, the industry ministry and the communications ministry have proposed 22 candidate areas.

They include a 95-billion-yen project to create a communication network based on satellite constellations; a 23-billion-yen project to develop a fuel-cell system for use on the lunar surface; and a 15.5-bilion-yen project to establish technologies to launch rockets more frequently and cheaply.

The government earmarked a total of 300 billion yen in a supplementary budget for fiscal 2023 as the initial batch of the fund.

The amount exceeds the 215.5 billion yen allocated for JAXA in the full-year fiscal 2023 budget.

The Basic Plan on Space Policy revised last year included a goal of expanding the domestic space business from 4 trillion yen in 2020 to 8 trillion early in the 2030s.

The space strategy fund will be established as a key program to realize that goal.

“It often takes time to develop and implement space technologies,” said Atsushi Uchida, a researcher at Mitsubishi Research Institute. “Companies and universities have high expectations (for the fund) because it will allow them to formulate research plans over the long term.”

U.S. financial services company Morgan Stanley estimates that the global space industry will grow to more than $1 trillion by 2040, about triple the size in 2020.

In the United States, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other start-ups have grown with support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

International competition continues to intensify in the space business.

The government set operating targets for the space strategy fund.

They include launching 30 or so rockets a year by the mid-2030s and private-sector companies playing a role in more than 10 projects involving journeys beyond the moon and Mars by the early 2030s.

Japan launched only two rockets last year.

Of the worldwide total in 2023, the United States and China accounted for 108 and 68 launches, respectively.

JAXA, whose primary task is research and development, now shoulders the heavy responsibility of making Japan a star in space business.

The onus is on JAXA to achieve operating targets by selecting the companies and universities capable of developing target technologies, monitoring progress of their work and providing professional advice to those partners.

The agency has tapped private-sector companies and government ministries to recruit experienced individuals for an in-house division to draw on their expertise to seek out optimum companies and universities.

“It is necessary to understand, manage and check the status of research by many companies and universities simultaneously and help produce appropriate results,” Uchida said. “JAXA and the four government ministries and agencies involved should create system to properly monitor progress and results.”

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