In Defense of Japan: From the Market to the Military in Space Policy

Saadia Pekkanen · Paul Kallender-Umezu

Aug 2010 · Stanford University Press

About this ebook

In Defense of Japan provides the first complete, up-to-date, English-language account of the history, politics, and policy of Japan's strategic space development. The dual-use nature of space technologies, meaning that they cut across both market and military applications, has had two important consequences for Japan. First, Japan has developed space technologies for the market in its civilian space program that have yet to be commercially competitive. Second, faced with rising geopolitical uncertainties and in the interest of their own economics, the makers of such technologies have been critical players in the shift from the market to the military in Japan's space capabilities and policy. This book shows how the sum total of market-to-military moves across space launch vehicles, satellites and spacecraft, and emerging related technologies, already mark Japan as an advanced military space power.

About the author

Saadia M. Pekkanen is Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor at the Jackson School of International Studies, and Adjunct Professor of Law, at the University of Washington, Seattle. Paul Kallender-Umezu is Japan Correspondent for Space News, and has been published widely in Japanese and domestic international media.