午夜剧场

This book is structured in three parts, examining the history, current status, and future of space development and space security, focusing on China, the United States, and Japan. While the central theme is the struggle for space hegemony between the U.S. and China, I wrote this with a strong focus on what Japan's goals were and how it acted during each era.

"Space" is often perceived as a symbol of human dreams and hopes, but this is only a small fraction of space activities. To begin with, rockets were born as part of missile development—an effective means of delivering nuclear weapons. Technically, rockets and missiles are almost identical devices, differing only in whether a satellite or a weapon is mounted on the tip. It is presumed that space development, which requires enormous funding, would not have progressed so rapidly if the United States and the Soviet Union (now Russia) had not engaged in a fierce nuclear arms race shortly after the end of World War II.

Although space development began for military purposes, space has also become indispensable for improving the convenience, safety, and security of civilian life. For example, car navigation systems were created from the signals of positioning and navigation satellites used to improve missile accuracy, and spy satellite technology is now used for disaster monitoring and Earth observation. In fact, for a period after the Cold War, the world was optimistic that space would continue to develop in this direction. China, which was becoming wealthier at the time, actively participated in United Nations space activities and was warmly welcomed by Western nations, leading to progress in bilateral space business between the U.S. and China.

However, the end of the U.S.-China honeymoon resulted in U.S. space and missile technology leaking through various legal and illegal means, enhancing China's nuclear and space weapon capabilities. Today, China surpasses the United States in some areas. Furthermore, having been shut out of the U.S. market, China sought a way forward in developing countries and is successfully establishing a "Space Silk Road" under the Xi Jinping administration.

Incidentally, Japan, which was prohibited from aerospace activities during the occupation, is the only country that succeeded in launching rockets using 100 percent domestic technology, independent of military purposes. The true purpose of this book was to empirically describe the improvement of space capabilities undertaken by Japan—which has gone through subsequent breakthroughs, slowdowns, and setbacks—as it resolves to defend its territory and democracy.

Setsuko Aoki

Shincho Shinsho

224 pages, 836 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.