The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will study whether to relax restrictions on using spinoffs from space development efforts for purposes of defense.

The LDP is also expected to explore ways for the Defense Agency to develop and operate spy satellites that produce higher-resolution images, party sources said.

The party envisions recommending to the government as early as August that a 1969 Diet resolution limiting Japan's space development to peaceful purposes be reassessed and that government policy be changed to allow defense use, they said.

The LDP will form a subcommittee to begin discussing the issue this month under the party's special committee on space development, they said.

The subcommittee is expected to be headed by Takeo Kawamura, a former technology minister and still a House of Representatives member of the LDP, they said.

The LDP believes the change would reinforce the Self-Defense Forces' ability to react quickly to a missile attack or other defense emergencies and strengthen the confidentiality of defense intelligence, according to the sources.

The government in 1985 laid down a policy that SDF satellites' capabilities not exceed those of private-sector ones.

In addition, the Defense Agency is not allowed to directly have a hand in space development.

Currently, Japan's reconnaissance satellites, mainly for monitoring missile and other military activities in North Korea, are operated by the Cabinet satellite intelligence center, from which the Defense Agency receives data.

The LDP is expected to recommend that the Diet adopt another resolution allowing defense use of space development, the sources said.