The Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) was established in 1993 to promote space utilization in the region.

JAXA served as the secretariat for the forum, which was attended by a wide range of organizations, including space agencies, government institutions, private companies, universities, and research institutes from various countries. JAXA also played a leading role in preparations for the forum by coordinating with the forum co-hosts - Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) - and presiding over the Executive Committee that decided on the forum's theme and program.

TATESHITA Yumiko of the International Relations and Research Department, which performed the secretariat's duties, recalled the preparations and details of APRSAF-28.

"The APRSAF was conducted online in 2020 and 2021, so this latest on-site forum was the first in quite a while. We were thinking above all that we had to make this forum one for which actually coming together in person was meaningful. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, APRSAF-26 was held in Nagoya in 2019 and the "Nagoya Vision" adopted at this 25th anniversary gathering laid out APRSAF's approaches over the next ten years. Among the policies advocated by this Vision were pursuing solutions to a wide range of Earth-based issues, improving human resource development and science and technology capabilities, enhancing policy implementation capabilities for common regional issues, encouraging the participation of new players in the region and pursuing diverse partnerships.

Accordingly, we decided to make the theme of APRSAF-28 "Bridging Space Innovations Opportunities for a Sustainable and Prosperous Future" and to focus on addressing challenges common throughout the Asia-Pacific region, particularly sustainability issues that have taken on great importance in recent years, as well as on contributing to regional economic development.

The first two days of the four-day program consisted of various working group sessions, while the latter two days were devoted to plenary sessions (presentations and panel discussions by high-ranking representatives of government institutions, space agencies, and private companies from various countries). With top-level officials from various national space agencies participating, meticulous preparations were made for the event, which also featured opportunities for direct exchange only possible with in-person attendance.

"We purposefully arranged numerous opportunities for networking (cross-industry exchanges) during the forum. Casual conversations and free discussions can sometimes bring to light common issues in different regions or produce unexpected ideas for space technology applications. By creating many opportunities for interaction, we hoped to put in place fortuitous circumstances for the birth of new ideas and partnerships."

Various working group sessions and workshops were also held during APRSAF-28. One of these was the Space Industry Workshop (SIWS), whose purpose was to discuss the current status and challenges of the space industry with panelists representing APRSAF participant countries and organizations in order to develop the space industry in the Asia-Pacific region.
TAKATA Shinichi of the Business Development and Industrial Relations Department, who led the SIWS, said he felt the in-person workshop in Vietnam generated outcomes that could not have been obtained online.

"It was my first time participating in APRSAF, and I was able to witness first-hand how government officials, businesses, and research organizations from around the region came together to discuss the current state of the space industry and ways of resolving social issues in their respective locales."

The panel discussions at SIWS covered a wide range of topics, including the next steps for the global space industry, actions governments could take to promote the commercial space industry, social implementation of space technology, and space station utilization.

Particularly unique to the on-site event in Takata's view was the final day's roundtable, where members from various organizations and in differing capacities circled a round table to freely exchange opinions.

"Members in differing capacities, including government officials, business people, and students, sat around the same table and actively exchanged opinions. In this more informal atmosphere, they discussed, among other matters, how space technology can be utilized in society as well as how to build a system that can realize this, and I felt this proved a very valuable opportunity.

Online communication is inevitably limited, making it difficult to establish a venue where a variety of opinions can be exchanged. That we were able to create an opportunity like this roundtable, where the heads of organizations and students could equally share ideas in a short period of time, is due entirely to holding the event on-site."

TATESHITA also saw a number of small meetings being held at various locations and realized the benefits of direct exchange. Having seen a significant change in the demographics of the participants, she continued on by saying that she hoped to leverage the advantages of on-site events to further stimulate communication.

"When APRSAF started out, it was exclusively a gathering of space agencies whose main focus was research and development. However, the environment surrounding the space industry has changed dramatically over the past few years, and the private sector has taken the lead. As a result, the main themes for discussion at APRSAF have become "what kinds of issues can space technology be used for?" and "how do we solve problems using space technology and implement these solutions in society?", and currently about 40% of the participants are private companies and organizations.

In other words, what the participants strongly desire of APRSAF is that it serve as a venue not only for discussing research and technology but also for finding what solutions can be feasibly worked out with whom. To achieve this, we believe it is necessary to make APRSAF a venue for meaningful encounters and discoveries."

Among the ideas that emerged from this year's APRSAF-28 were using satellites to study the amount of methane gas emitted from rice paddies in Vietnam and thereby help predict climate change and utilizing space technology for disaster management and agricultural support. We hope to see more such ideas for specific applications vigorously generated at future APRSAFs.

"The upcoming APRSAF-29 will be held in Indonesia and APRSAF-30 in Australia. Preparations for APRSAF-30 are already underway. Australia is a country whose private sector makes very significant use of space, so considerable progress could be made in resolving social issues through space technology and deploying this technology across society if the forum there enjoys a lively exchange of views such as that seen at APRSAF-28. We intend to move forward with preparations for this event to ensure it will serve as a venue for learning and meaningful encounters for participants from all countries."

TATESHITA expressed her enthusiasm for APRSAF's future endeavors, and went on to say that she would like to encourage a wider range of people to participate.

"APRSAF currently has no special restrictions on who can participate. Any organization wishing to participate can do so as long as it agrees with the purpose of the forum, and students are also welcome. That is why we hope that not only persons interested in the space industry but also those troubled by local issues will make use of this event as a place to share these issues. Sharing issues should produce opportunities to meet private companies and organizations with potentially applicable technologies. We hope participants will find private companies to partner with and use the forum as an opportunity to gain industry interest."

Takata nodded in agreement with this sentiment, remarking on the importance of creating more networking venues to consolidate the passion he noted at the forum among the participants from various countries.

"APRSAF is a major annual conference. To make the most of this opportunity to bring together key people from numerous countries, we would like to hold small symposiums from time to time in various locations to lay the groundwork for APRSAF. We must not allow any of the ideas generated to get buried."

Takata added: "Going forward, we want to make APRSAF a forum that directly leads to solutions to issues faced by the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region by continuing to ensure further opportunities to disseminate information on the challenges faced by the region and engaging with those participating or wishing to participate in the space industry, so we hope that many such motivated people will attend this forum."

"APRSAF is an excellent opportunity to understand issues across the region and to get one's foot in the door in Asia. We hope that it will trigger companies to achieve growth, resolve Asia's social issues and seize the chance to expand into Asian markets."

APRSAF-28 produced many opportunities to meet in person and to seek out solutions to issues, and the next forum is expected to offer yet more opportunities across a wide range of areas of interest.