At the Crossroads: Civil and Security Issues Concerning Navigation Satellites in Japan

Abstract

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the US Global Positioning System (GPS) at its core but the Russian GLONASS and other systems also at play, is destined to be the basic infrastructure of the forthcoming information age, producing vast civil applications and markets. With the whole world going to be reliant on the GPS that is still owned and operated by the military of a single nation (as also is GLONASS), concerns are being raised in various circles as to the adequacy of the civil world becoming wholly reliant on those military systems. Awareness is increasing worldwide of navigation satellites’ implications as a foremost 21st century issue that transcends civil and national security boundaries. The European Union has embarked on the development of Galileo as an independent, non-military, GNSS. Various meetings have been held between Japanese and US Governments since 1996 on GPS issues, the most recent being the second annual “Japan-US GPS Plenary Meeting” held in October 2002.

This paper addresses such issues with a focus on the Japanese situation, especially those surrounding the Japan-US GPS meetings, in the hope that they may serve the purpose of promoting first, the recognition of these issues by other people, and second, the understanding of the situation peculiar to Japan, the world’s second largest economy and perhaps the largest civil GPS user nation. The special Japanese sensitivity to space and national security issues, a survey of developments of Japan-US GPS meetings, and reports of discussions of related topics in other international forums are all discussed. It is apparent that there is a barrier in Japan between the civil and national security views, which is especially conspicuous in the Japan-US GPS meetings, and that international discussions point to the responsibility of user nations to deny the GNSS service to “hostile users”. All concerned, whether in Japan or elsewhere, should transcend the vertical “turfs” to come to grips with the whole GNSS issue as their own responsibility, to recognize and be prepared for the threat of a 21st century “Navigation War”.