ISTANBUL

Japan on Tuesday adopted a new space security blueprint aimed at boosting information-gathering systems and the effectiveness of “counterstrike” over the next decade.

The new strategy will strengthen information-gathering systems to “enhance the effectiveness of counterstrike, or enemy base strike, capabilities,” Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

The latest move comes after Japan updated its national security strategy last December, allowing its armed forces to acquire "counterstrike capability."

Commenting on the new strategy for space security, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said: “For the sake of national security, we will dramatically scale up the use of space systems and ensure the safe and stable utilization of the domain.”

“The development of space sector technologies has direct implications concerning military advantage,” Kyodo News reported, adding that the strategy cites as an example “the use of data from US and European commercial satellites to assist Ukraine in military operations in its defensive war against Russia.”

Moscow launched a war on Kyiv in February of last year.​​​​​​​