Southwest Japan's Challenges: Signs of Growth / Kyushu's Space Industry Blasts Off Into A Bright Future
Somewhere in the suburbs of Fukuoka City stands a large, aging warehouse, surrounded by houses and other buildings. One day in late April, with special permission, I entered inside, a wide open space that feels like a secret base, and discovered its secret: a giant satellite antenna that may represent the future of Japan's space industry.
The Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS), a Fukuoka City-based space venture firm with roots in Kyushu University, renovated the warehouse and has been operating it at full capacity as a research and development center since March. On the day I visited, iQPS staffers were preparing a small Earth observation satellite for shipment to New Zealand, from where it would soon be launched.
'If we can observe Earth essentially in real-time, we can eliminate a lot of anxiety about disasters and other problems,' said Shunsuke Onishi, the 39-year-old president of iQPS, which has been turning heads in Japan and around the world. 'We want to revolutionize the space industry from here in Kyushu.'
The satellite was successfully launched on May 17. The satellite will perform preliminary functions for a few months before beginning full-scale commercial operations.
Currently, iQPS operates three commercial satellites, but the company intends to expand this network to 24 satellites within three years and eventually to a total of 36. This will enable its satellites to observe almost every location on the planet once every 10 minutes, send data back to Earth and track the movements of people and objects.80% of components made locally
Tetsuo Yasaka, an 83-year-old professor emeritus at Kyushu University, and two colleagues around the same age who had been involved in the space industry for many years founded iQPS in 2005. Onishi, who had been a student of Yasaka's, joined the company in 2013 and became its president about six months later. The company was first listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market in December 2023. Most of the data they glean from their satellites is sold to the government, but iQPS also is pushing ahead with efforts to expand sales to clients in the private sector.
A synthetic aperture radar on the company's satellites fires radio waves at Earth's surface, then captures and analyzes those that bounce back to create a three-dimensional image of conditions on the ground. These radar systems, capable of determining the conditions in units of just a few millimeters, are not affected by weather conditions and can operate even at night.
The power required to emit the radio waves is generated by solar panels that cover much of each satellite's body. An antenna, which unfolds in space, amplifies radio wave output.
Most of these components were made in small factories in the Kyushu region. About 20 companies from Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures and elsewhere have cooperated with this project, resulting in about 80% of the satellite parts being manufactured in Kyushu.
Ogawa Material Handling Co., a company based in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, has been involved with iQPS since the development of its first satellite.
'This project is turning a profit, and space-related technologies and businesses are steadily becoming established in Kyushu,' said Ogawa Vice President Shinji Ito, 50.
International competition is heating up in the satellite development field. In March, the decision was made to grant iQPS about ¥8.4 billion from a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency fund, which will be used to accelerate its development efforts.
Room for growth
Satellite performance and technology have made great strides in recent years. Launching multiple small satellites and having them work together as a 'satellite constellation' has become increasingly common. Reducing the size of satellites has brought down development costs, which once ran into tens of billions of yen, to between tens of millions and a few billion yen. This has opened the door for emerging startups to join the industry, including iQPS.
The World Economic Forum, a private Swiss think tank, estimates that the global space market in 2035 could be worth about ¥270 trillion — about triple its size in 2023. In addition to Earth observation services, this would cover a wide spectrum of fields, including communications, space travel and exploration.
The use of satellite data has enormous room for growth.
Advanced technologies are needed to utilize satellite data. New Space Intelligence Inc. (NSI), a company founded in 2021 and based in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, saw an opening in the market because much of this data cannot easily be tapped now. NSI selects and processes data into a form that is easy to use and then provides this information to customers.
'Satellite data is very versatile and can be useful in all sorts of industries,' said NSI President Yumiko Nagai, 50, who previously worked as a researcher. 'There will come a day when most companies have their own satellites.'
Kyushu's advantage
The Kyushu region is home to the Uchinoura Space Center in the town of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, from which the nation's small Epsilon rockets blast off; and the Tanegashima Space Center, also in the prefecture, from which its mainstay H3 rockets launch. JAXA operates both facilities. The Kyushu region's two launch facilities give it an edge that is widely believed to offer the foundations for the region to firmly establish itself as a hub of the space industry.
In Oita Prefecture, Oita Airport aims to become a 'spaceport' at which spaceships can land and take off. U.S. space company Sierra Space Corp. is considering using the airport as a landing site for its spaceplanes when they return to Earth after delivering supplies to the International Space Station and other locations. Japan Airlines Co., MUFG Bank, Ltd. and other companies also are participating in initiatives that envision making the airport a hub for space travel.
More launches
However, the number of space launches in Japan has struggled to grow. No satellites have been launched from the Uchinoura Space Center since a failed attempt in 2022, and only three H3 rockets got off the ground in 2024.
'If there was about one launch per week, the surrounding area would thrive and the space industry's base would expand,' said Kyushu Institute of Technology Prof. Cho Mengu, who has researched mini satellites for many years.
Almost 200 students have studied under Cho. In the past 10 years, the institute has operated about 30 small satellites, making it one of the world's leading academic satellite operators.
'Kyushu by itself has the potential to spawn about 50 space-related companies in the next five years,' Cho said. 'Universities and local governments should work together, because if we create an environment in which setting up such businesses becomes easier, Kyushu could become 'a place close to space' in a very real sense.'
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