In Defense of Japan provides the first complete, up-to-date, English-language account of the history, politics, and policy of Japan's strategic space development. The dual-use nature of space technologies, meaning that they cut across both market and military applications, has had two important consequences for Japan. First, Japan has developed space technologies for the market in its civilian space program that have yet to be commercially competitive. Second, faced with rising geopolitical uncertainties and in the interest of their own economics, the makers of such technologies have been critical players in the shift from the market to the military in Japan's space capabilities and policy. This book shows how the sum total of market-to-military moves across space launch vehicles, satellites and spacecraft, and emerging related technologies, already mark Japan as an advanced military space power.

Reviews the history of Japan's space program, its organization and recent changes, the origins and status of its satellite reconnaissance program, factors affecting its spave program, and the directions the program may take next.

The development of the space industry in the Asian and Pacific Rim region provides the context for this book. The two major countries hoping for leadership in the area (apart from China) are Japan and India, both of whom have significant launcher capabilities. There is a general introductory chapter which places the space programmes of the region in the comparative context of the other space-faring nations of the world. The author reviews the main space programmes of Japan and India in turn, concentrating on their origins, the development of launcher and space facilities, scientific and engineering programmes, and future prospects. The book concludes with a chapter comparing how similarly/differently Japan and India are developing their space programmes, how they are likely to proceed in the future, and what impact the programmes have had in their own region and what they have contributed so far to global space research.

This work introduces the important emerging space powers of the world. Brian Harvey describes the origins of the Japanese space program, from rocket designs based on WW II German U-boats to tiny solid fuel 'pencil' rockets, which led to the launch of the first Japanese satellite in 1970. The next two chapters relate how Japan expanded its space program, developing small satellites into astronomical observatories and sending missions to the Moon, Mars, comet Halley, and asteroids. Chapter 4 describes how India's Vikram Sarabhai developed a sounding rocket program in the 1960s. The following chapter describes the expansion of the Indian space program. Chapter 6 relates how the Indian space program is looking ahead to the success of the moon probe Chandrayan, due to launch in 2008, and its first manned launching in 2014. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 demonstrate how, in Iran, communications and remote sensing drive space technology. Chapter 10 outlines Brazil's road to space, begun in the mid-1960's with the launch of the Sonda sounding rockets. The following two chapters describe Brazil's satellites and space launch systems and plans for the future. Chapters 13 and 14 study Israel's space industry. The next chapters look at the burgeoning space programs of North and South Korea. The book ends by contrasting and comparing all the space programs and speculating how they may evolve in the future. An appendix lists all launches and launch attempts to date of the emerging space powers.

The devices installed in a space rocket can be divided into three classes: 1) an observing device used to observe physical phenomena in a high-altitude atmosphere and a counting device used to detect the operational condition of a rocket, 2) a teletransmitter used to send observed data to the ground stations, and 3) a radar transmitter to give instantaneous information about the trajectory of a space rocket. Of course, a rocket has equipment in addition to these three fundamental devices in order to ensure all devices and the flight operating efficiently and effectively. Some special techniques are needed to obtain an effective flight for a space rocket having all those measuring and counting and communication devices on board. And some other techniques are needed to get effective operation of the measuring and communication devices. For example, we have to open a window on the nose of the rocket to expose a measuring device to the outside atmosphere, or stretch out an antenna to send radio waves to ground stations. All techniques described here will be under the general heading of device- operation techniques. In the following sections, we shall see the achievements of device- operation techniques; and the author's personal opinion on the future trend of development in the technical field will be briefly described.