On January 13, 2023, in the presence of Prime Minister Kishida visiting NASA HQ, Mr. Hayashi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the Honorable Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States of America, signed the Framework Agreement between Japan and the United States of America for Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space. Dr. Yamakawa, President of JAXA and Astronaut Hoshide also had the opportunity to witness this signing ceremony.

This agreement sets forth the basic terms and conditions for Japan-U.S. space cooperation for peaceful purposes as well as enables to promote space cooperation and increase efficiency for it between JAXA and U.S. agencies including NASA. We expect that this will further expand the field of cooperation including Artemis Project between Japan and U.S.

GEOTAIL is a joint Japan-US project to observe the Earth's magnetotail. The satellite was launched in July 1992 from Florida in the USA onboard the Delta-II launch vehicle. On a long elliptical orbit around the Earth, GEOTAIL conducted long-term observations for more than 30 years, and achieved ground-breaking results, in particular numerous discoveries in the Earth's magnetotail, such as demonstrating that magnetic reconnection occurs at the daytime boundary and tail of the Earth's magnetosphere, clarifying how ions and electrons behave in this region. GEOTAIL's operation for more than 30 years far exceeded the originally planned three-and-a-half-year mission period. However, by the end of June 2022, both the satellite's installed data recorders stopped operating. Due to lack of sufficient observation data, it was decided to terminate observation operations on November 28, 2022, and stop the operation of the spacecraft and radiowave transmission. The results of the mission will be summarised by the end of March next year. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the organisations and individuals who have cooperating in the operation of GEOTAIL so far.

The leaders confirmed in-principle support for Australia to be the landing site for the Japanese Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) capsule, expected to launch in 2024. Leaders welcomed this strong collaboration between Australia and Japan in space science research activities

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) initiated a collaborative effort aiming at establishment of the COVID-19 Earth Observing Dashboard in May 2020, and extended its scope to global environmental change later in March 2021. In May of this year, three years after the start of its initiative, Earth Observing Dashboard has reached the stage of total renewal. Noting the increasing use of the joint Dashboard and the continuous users’ requests for more information, NASA, ESA, and JAXA agreed to continue through June 2024 to advance their joint work in global understanding of the changing environment with human activities.

For the text of NASA-ESA-JAXA Joint Declaration:
Joint Declaration on trilateral collaboration by NASA, ESA and JAXA

Related Information:
Renewal of the Earth Observing Dashboard, Joint analysis website of JAXA, NASA, and ESA using Earth observation data

In view of the recent deterioration of the on-orbit environment due to advances made in space development and a large number of future launch plans, space debris countermeasures are becoming increasingly important for sustainable space development and utilization. The 10th Space Debris Workshop will be held as one of the largest space debris discussion forums for all stakeholders in Japan, providing information on domestic and international technical trends related to space debris issues, and fostering active cooperation among researchers.
We invite presentations (oral and posters) for English and Japanese sessions with the aim of providing a forum for wider-ranging discussions.

The 10th Space Debris Workshop will be held at the JAXA Chofu Aerospace Center and online.
However, it may be changed to an all-online event depending on the COVID-19 situation.