Enacting Japan's Basic Law for space activities: Revolution or evolution?

In June 2012, four whole years after the Basic Space Law mandated a fundamental reorientation of Japan's space policy objectives towards applications, including national security and the use of space as a diplomatic tool, legislation was passed by Japan's Diet that alters who controls Japan's space policy. The new legislation involves a curious compromise between competing aims and objectives of different parts of Japan's central bureaucracy. But it also clearly represents a break from the past and potentially a decisive step toward new directions for Japan's governmental space efforts. Contextualizing the deeper and immediate background, this article seeks to elucidate just how deep, or indeed shallow, some of the forthcoming changes are.