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Japan to establish its own military space unit

Working in conjunction with the new U.S. Space Force, Japan now plans to establish its own defense-oriented space unit.

The space unit will be added to an existing air base at Fuchu in the western suburbs of Tokyo, where about 20 people will be staffed ahead of a full launch in 2022. The role of the space unit is to conduct satellite-based navigation and communications for other troops in the field, rather than being on the ground.

Abe’s Cabinet in December approved 50.6 billion yen (U.S. $459.2 million) budget in space-related projects, pending parliamentary approval. [emphasis mine]

The highlighted words indicate the unit’s purpose, to provide support from space for the operations of Japan’s allies. This makes sense, as Japan itself has no real army.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • hondo

    Japan’s military forces are extremely impressive and formidable. They are very low key about this.

  • Dick Eagleson

    The Japan Ground Self Defense Force is Japan’s Army. It numbers 150,000. Looks pretty real to me.

  • Dick Eagleson: I should have been more precise. Unless treaties have changed things, they do not have an army for offensive purposes. From what I’ve read, after WWII they were proscribed from such a thing. Note the name of this army. It is very carefully designed for self defense.

  • Tom Billings

    “The Space Domain Mission Unit” looks like it will start much as Japan’s Naval Self Defense Force started, in cooperation with US armed forces, …in that case, they started in cooperation to clear the many mines in Japanese and Korean harbors that had been placed by B-29s in the last 5 months of the war. In this case, it “will start in April as part of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force”. What it evolves into is no more fixed at this moment than the JSDF was in 1946.

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