Japan's Security / Peace & Stability of the International Community

Japan-U.S. Space Cooperation

May 30, 2025

Official visit to the U.S. in April 2024
(The center of the photo is a model of a pressurized lunar rover) (Photo Credit: United States National Security Council)

The Signing Ceremony of the Framework Agreement between Japan and the U.S. for Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space in January 2023 (Photo Credit: Cabinet Public Affairs Office)

As confirmed in a series of high-level meetings and discussions, Japan and the U.S. are committed to deepening space cooperation in all the civil, commercial, and security fields.

At the Japan-U.S. Summit Meeting convened in April 2024, as for civil cooperation, the leaders welcomed the signing of a Lunar Surface Exploration Implementing Arrangement, in which Japan plans to provide a pressurized lunar rover while the U.S. plans to allocate two astronaut flight opportunities to the lunar surface for Japan on future Artemis missions.
The leaders also announced a shared goal for a Japanese national to be the first non-American astronaut to land on the Moon on a future Artemis mission, assuming important benchmarks are achieved.

As for security cooperation, at the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee (Japan-U.S. “2+2”) convened in January 2023, Japan and the U.S. committed to deepening cooperation on space capabilities, and considered that attacks to, from, or within space present a clear challenge to the security of the Alliance, and affirmed such attacks, in certain circumstances, could lead to the invocation of Article V of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. Japan and the U.S. are continuing to cooperate on space security, including through mutual exchanges of information in the field of Space Situational Awareness and others, as well as cooperation on hosted payloads (mission instruments loaded onto other entities' satellites).

Through the Japan-U.S. Comprehensive Dialogue on Space and the Japan-U.S. Space Security Dialogue, Japan and the U.S. are holding discussions to further strengthen cooperation.