Japan’s cabinet on Monday approved a bill to set up a 1 trillion yen ($6.7 billion) fund for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the country’s space agency, as a way to catapult the country’s private sector into the global race for new rocket and satellite technologies.
The bill aims to create a trillion-yen endowment over the next 10 years that JAXA would dip into to provide long-term support to startups, other private-sector companies and universities.
The bill calls for allocating 300 billion yen — the first round of funding — in the draft supplementary budget for the fiscal year through this coming March. It includes 150 billion yen for the Ministry of Education and Science, 126 billion yen for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and 24 billion yen for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The government has previously stated that the fund would “seek to swiftly provide support totaling about 1 trillion yen.“
The government plans to submit the bill to the current Diet session, and JAXA is expected to begin accepting applications for funds in April.
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