Japan to give Rakuten-led consortium up to $926 million for satellite network

Japan's government is prepared to grant a consortium led by Rakuten Group a subsidy of up to 150 billion yen, about $926 million, to build its own low-Earth-orbit satellite network for mobile phones.

Why does Japan want its own satellite network?

Tokyo is explicit about its reasoning: it doesn't want to depend on foreign satellite internet operators, above all networks tied to American entrepreneur Elon Musk. Instead, it wants to provide phone connectivity from space on its own.

• Subsidy size: up to 150 billion yen, about $926 million
• Recipient: a consortium led by Rakuten Group
• Network type: low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communications for mobile phones
• Official goal: Japan's independence from foreign satellite operators

The government sees the project as part of its technological sovereignty. Japan's economy and communications rely heavily on resilient networks, and the country doesn't want to build critical communications infrastructure on top of foreign operators whose activities it doesn't control.

Tokyo's framing — "not depending on Elon Musk" — makes clear which class of foreign operators it has in mind. Japanese officials openly cite this as a factor behind the decision to fund a domestic project rather than rely on existing commercial satellite networks.

What does Rakuten's involvement mean?

Rakuten Group already operates in Japan's telecom sector as a mobile carrier. A large government subsidy for a satellite project extends the company's reach from terrestrial networks into orbital infrastructure. The Rakuten-led consortium becomes the main contractor for a government program meant to create an independent national satellite constellation.

At nearly $1 billion, the subsidy puts the project among the largest government investments in satellite communications outside the US and China. For Rakuten, it marks a shift from local telecom operator to participant in a genuine national-scale orbital infrastructure project funded directly by the state.

Putting a private consortium in charge, rather than a government space program, reflects the model Tokyo has chosen: the state pays to build critical infrastructure, while a commercial entity led by Rakuten manages and operates the network.

How big is the subsidy in different currencies?

The announced amount — up to 150 billion yen — equals roughly $926 million at the exchange rate at the time of the announcement. That dollar figure makes it possible to compare the Japanese project with similar government programs supporting satellite communications in other countries, where such sums are also typically measured in hundreds of millions of dollars rather than single-digit billions.

What this means

Japan joins the list of countries funding their own alternatives to Western satellite operators, amid growing geopolitical sensitivity over who controls satellite communications as critical infrastructure for phones and other devices.

The decision to fund the project through a government subsidy, rather than leave it entirely to the private market, shows that Tokyo treats satellite communications not as an ordinary telecom business but as a matter of national infrastructure independence.