Legal Issues in Space Business in Japan – Volume 2

The Japanese Diet enacted the Space Resources Mining Act on June 15, 2021. The Act will come into force by early 2022. Japan became the fourth country in the world to enact a law regarding space resources exploitation, following the United States, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates. Japan already has a Space Activities Act that regulates rocket launches and satellite operations; however, it was not clear under this Act whether the Japanese government would allow commercial exploitation of space resources. The Space Resources Mining Act explicitly permits a person to undertake commercial mining of space resources and expressly provides that a person that conducts mining activity will acquire ownership of the space resources so exploited.

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