Q: Commercial use of space is becoming more active, so what is the status of private space development in Japan?KADOWAKI The Space Activities Act was enacted in Japan to promote space develop-ment at the private level. It has been enforced since November 2018, and it can be said that the act has raised interest in the commercial use of space. A variety of activities are ex-pected in space, and satellite communica-tions technologies are one of the most im-portant technologies to realize them. NICT has been researching satellite communica-tions technologies for many years and has a vast amount of accumulated technologies and knowledge. I think that we can contribute to Japan’s space development by making use of these research results and development capa-bilities.However, in order to do so, national re-search institutes alone are not enough, and outstanding private sector technologies and human resources are also required. There-fore, we established SPIF with the intention of creating a place for free and open discus-sion of how to proceed with future research and development, based on the eld of space communications.Q: It can be properly said that this is a new era of space, but what kind of technologies do we need to achieve our goals?■Technologies supporting a new era of spaceKADOWAKI Terrestrial wireless networks have entered the 5G era, but, at the moment, 5G is only terrestrial. I would like to use satellite communications and develop 5G in three dimensions.Construction of a three-dimensional 5G network will expand upward to the sky with drones, airplanes, stratospheric platforms, low earth orbit satellites, and geostationary satellites. In the future, I would also like to consider communications with the Moon and with Mars.Space development is shifting from a national enterprise to the private sector, and this trend has been accelerating in the last decade or so. In the United States, SpaceX has sent astronauts to the ISS with the Falcon 9 rock-et and Crew Dragon capsule, and it also has a plan to launch tens of thou-sands of small satellites and build satellite internet. In this turbulent era of space development, Japan is also beginning to move towards the com-mercial use of space. The Space ICT Promotion Initiative Forum (SPIF) was established by NICT together with universities and companies to support this trend from the technical side and further accelerate it. We spoke with KADOWAKI Naoto, Vice President of NICT and SPIF, who has been involved in research since the pioneering early days of space communication technology.KADOWAKI NaotoVice President, NICTEntered CRL (currently NICT) in 1986. He has engaged in satellite communication. After that he became visit-ing researcher at AUSSAT in Australia, Chief Researcher at Adaptive Communication Laboratory, ATR, Director General of Wireless Communication Institute, NICT. Current position from 2017. Ph.D. (Information Science).Innovative Space Communications Technology Seamlessly Connecting Land, Sea, Air, and SpaceWhat is this movement towards a new era of space-based ICT?Special Issue for Space ICTNICT NEWS 2021 No.12
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