Space: The Final Frontier

Keep an eye on Japan!

How do you invest in Japan’s space boom?

Japan’s space related stocks started to move yesterday. The author believes it’s a matter of time before the theme becomes a major focus for Japanese retail investors. And why not? Japan’s space program should be a source of pride for the nation. There is a reason President Trump suggested to Prime Minister Ishiba that the US and Japan will continue joint lunar missions. Companies like Japan’s iSpace has cutting edge technology that the US doesn’t.

In November, this newsletter suggested that we would see a renaissance of complex engineering. Elon Musk showed the world that there are bigger problems to put our greatest minds to rather than getting them to build software to organize receipts or to make it easier for poor people to spend money. Musk should be celebrated for that.

The renaissance of complex engineering is not just a US thing. Companies like Horizon Robotics and DeepSeek have shown the world that Chinese technological progress has made great strides since 2018. And AI never belonged to Silicon Valley anyway. It was always a global thing.

One country that the author believes will surprise the world with what it achieves technologically over the next five years is Japan. Software engineers there might make a fraction of what a US based engineer might earn, and their entrepreneurs might not be able to build fancy presentations and talk about TAM all day. But its universities still produce a lot of engineering talent.

As discussed in November, it is Japan’s contribution to space technology that will be the area that stands out initially. The author believes Japan is on the cusp of a space technology boom. The Japanese government has set a goal of increasing the size of the Japanese space industry from Y4 trillion in 2020 to Y 8 trillion by 2030. The author believes that’s way too conservative. The US will put pressure on Japan to be much more ambitious. Let’s go!

The Japanese Space Industry - which stocks to buy?

186A Astroscale

Founded in 2013, Astroscale operates in Japan, the US, the UK, France, and Israel. Their mission is to ensure the safe and sustainable development of space by addressing the growing problem of space debris. It has been commissioned by JAXA, Japan’s national aerospace agency, and other space agencies around the world. In recent years, the company has been developing technologies to capture debris with satellites and remove it by dropping it into the atmosphere, as well as technologies for refueling satellites.