The “Logic of Commerce” and the Evolution of Japan’s National Space Program

Abstract In the 2000s, the Government of Japan initiated a major overhaul of its national space law and policy, shifting from a “logic of technology” to ‘combined logics of commerce and security’. Previously dominated by large aerospace conglomerates in service of governmental space activities, the Japanese commercial space landscape is now characterized by its great dynamism with the appearance of numerous startup companies and an attractivity going beyond traditional space actors. To account for the profound implications of national space policy orientations on domestic commercial ecosystems, this chapter introduces an “industrial space policy logics” framework to serve as a tool for modeling and comparative analysis, and uses it to chart the evolution of the Japanese space ecosystem over the last few decades.