Japan enacts 1st law allowing for military space use

Wednesday 21st May, 12:59 PM JST

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romulus3 at 02:18 PM JST - 21st May

I would rather they change the law to register that poor woman and her baby and the ward office than to waste time on this crap.
thepro at 03:35 PM JST - 21st May

Yes, lets kill each other in space too.
Nessie at 03:35 PM JST - 21st May

Great, as long as it's just the space over Japan.
Starviking at 05:06 PM JST - 21st May

They are actually trying to address the farce of launching spy satellites to keep tabs on the North Koreans that are deliberately hobbled so they wouldn't be seen as 'military satellites' by Japanese Constitutionalists.

There's where the real waste of money was - launching near-useless satellites because of some self-important politician's egos!
LFRAgain at 05:47 PM JST - 21st May

I would rather they change the law to register that poor woman and her baby and the ward office than to waste time on this crap.

Ditto to that.
fingerless at 06:23 PM JST - 21st May

Let the building of giant robots begin. Gundam FTW!
Farmboy at 07:58 PM JST - 21st May

Really, I totally understand the desire on the part of some Japanese to be able to defend their own country, especially since the US has forgotten why they insisted on a pacifist constitution in the first place. Still, it's clear where this is going...

I guess North Korea will start building the half-meter-long mini-nukes starting next week...never see 'em coming....
MichaelJP at 09:09 PM JST - 21st May

At last! Space Battleship Yamato ready to launch!
VoXman at 10:14 PM JST - 21st May

I guess North Korea will start building the half-meter-long mini-nukes starting next week...never see 'em coming....

NK just tested their first nuke and so you think they've jumped 20 years into the Nuclear age and can miniturize nukes the size of loafs of bread. So far only the US and Russia have that ability, maybe france or England. But NK? Thats a stretch. NK at most could hope for Scud technology that can and will get knocked out with the latest Patriot missile batteries. Never see'em coming? Huh? Over the horizon radar has been in the hands of the JSDF since the 1990s... Stop scaring people....
weedkila at 10:28 PM JST - 21st May

It does not specify what the programs will be used for, but the satellite network and other assets could be used for surveillance...

Of who? The neighbours or us?

the satellites are limited to spotting objects as small as 1 meter at maximum

You mean only slightly better than google earth's old pix? C'mon. They could probably pick out a middle finger ok
rjdsr at 11:26 PM JST - 21st May

Good, good. Space is ours. It is imperative that we get there and set up before China et al.
Alfie_in_Tokyo at 11:31 PM JST - 21st May

I read this story first on the UK's Guardian newspaper website, where it quotes the US Ambassador as follows:

*"Our capabilities have increased dramatically because we are spending more on defence than we were 10 years ago," Schieffer said this week.

"That helps Japan. I don't think it is unfair of us to suggest that Japan needs to look at that and make an assessment. A hard choice, perhaps, but Japan needs to spend more on defence," he said.*

Whatever you all may say about Japan, no doubt they are being urged on by the US in this instance, especially because of the US's desire to militarise space further and - I would imagine - to have a friendly, hi-tech nation with their own space programme on board.

Ah, the irony of it all: US wins war over Japan and brings in law to cap their defence spending. This in turn has a positive effect on Japan which, unlike most other industrialized nations actually spends 1% or less of its GDP on defence. A good thing in my book, leaving more money to be spent on more useful things than killing machines.

So, now the US Ambassador to Japan and - presumably the wider US administration - is hedging Japan towards increasing their defence budget.

Victor reforms and pacifies the vanquished. 60 years later they are urging the country to ramp-up their military.

Funny old game life, isn't it?
Alfie_in_Tokyo at 11:42 PM JST - 21st May

the satellites are limited to spotting objects as small as 1 meter at maximum

You mean only slightly better than google earth's old pix? C'mon. They could probably pick out a middle finger ok

Quite so weedkilla: back in the late 1980s I saw some pictures taken using a Russian spy satellite. I was in the Army at the time. The pictures were shown to me by someone working at a London-based military HQ. From one of the pictures I could pratically make out the cards in the hand of someone sat on the edge of a square in Moscow. Probably enough to have phoned his mate and told him what his opponent had in his hand: two Aces, two Kings and a Three. Technology we know about and technology that exists are usually two different thimgs.
mareo2 at 11:48 PM JST - 21st May

I think that J can expend money in anti-missile satelites. If we dont need US nuclear umbrella, then we need less the "US protection". Then we can send the US soldiers back to america (or direct to Irak) and start to take responsability for our relations with the rest of Asia in place of hide behind the Uncle Sam. The longer that is spy and defensive systems and nothing about WMDs our compromise with peace is ok.
weedkila at 12:14 AM JST - 22nd May

AlfieinTokyo

Technology we know about and technology that exists are usually two different thimgs.

I agree. It's probably a few decades apart. In addition to the photography I'm sure these latest satellites have lots of extra bells and whistles as well. By coincidence I came across these pics yesterday showing all the satellites in orbit. I don't know where the Japanese are going to fit their latest ones in.

http://www.esa.int/esa-mmg/mmg.pl?b=b&type=I&collection=Spacecraft%20Operations&start=1