Japan backs Rakuten satellite network with $912 million grant
Japan committed up to 148 billion yen for Rakuten’s satellite push, betting public money can buy communications sovereignty from foreign networks.
Japan will subsidize Rakuten Group’s satellite ambitions with up to 148 billion yen, or about $912 million, backing a domestic alternative to foreign space-based communications. The project is aimed at building a homegrown low-Earth orbit network that Tokyo sees as both an economic security asset and a disaster-resilience tool.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications decided on Jan. 30, 2026, to grant the subsidy for the J-LEO Project to the Communications and Information Network Association of Japan, after CIAJ applied on Jan. 7 and was selected by an external expert evaluation committee. The program is financed through the FY2025 supplementary budget and an expanded Digital Infrastructure Development Fund, and the money can cover satellites and ground equipment for direct satellite communications services operated and managed in Japan.
Japan has depended on SpaceX’s Starlink and other foreign providers for low-orbit satellite communications, even as KDDI Corp., NTT Docomo, Inc. and SoftBank Corp. have all moved ahead with Starlink-based satellite-to-smartphone services. Low-orbit systems keep smartphones and other devices connected when users are beyond mobile tower coverage or when earthquakes, storms or other disasters knock towers offline.
Rakuten is already in talks with AST SpaceMobile about a joint venture for the project, and the company planned to create a new entity by the end of 2026 as a subsidiary of Rakuten Mobile. Rakuten also planned to buy multiple AST satellites and begin limited services in 2026, with the possibility of opening the service beyond Rakuten users during disaster situations. Rakuten would be the first Japanese operator to launch its own LEO-based communications service in competition with Starlink.
The 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture severely disrupted communications, and MIC’s 2024 white paper said satellite mobile phones were used in heavily affected areas. MIC later recognized carrier cooperation efforts tied to a framework that began on Dec. 1, 2024.
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