The Diet is expected to enact soon a bill establishing a basic law on space. The bill, passed by the Lower House in a plenary session, represents a drastic departure from Japan's traditional "peaceful purposes only" space policy and could lead to extensive use of space for military purposes. Regrettably, the bill sailed through the Lower House Cabinet Committee after only a few hours of deliberations on the same day that the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and the Democratic Party of Japan submitted it to the committee.
In a 1969 plenary session, the Lower House unanimously adopted a resolution limiting Japan's development of space to peaceful purposes under "open, autonomous and democratic" principles. The same principles have helped Japan make contributions in scientific space research, including asteroid and moon explorations.
But the bill says development and use of space must contribute not only to improvement in people's lives and creation of a safe society but also to the security of Japan, although it says such development and use must be based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, other international agreements and the pacifist principle of the Constitution.