After 40 years of unwavering official pacifism Japan is poised to overturn its ban on the militarisation of space.

Within the next month, the nation whose constitution renounces the use of force in settling international disputes will be allowed formally to direct its massive industrial and scientific communities to what it now calls the challenges of “changing global security situations”.

The officially sanctioned use of space for military purposes will build on Japan’s longstanding civil space programme, which is regularly accused by Japanese peace activists and foreign governments of including military elements.

It is an open secret that since the test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile by North Korea in 1998, Japan’s military has operated four information-gathering satellites that have not been registered with the United Nations, despite an international treaty requiring them to be.

Despite the widespread national discomfort surrounding Japan’s military ambitions in orbit, the “basic law on space” was given the seal of approval yesterday by a panel drawn from ruling and opposition parties. That makes the law virtually certain to be passed in the current session of parliament, and will offically reshape the country’s position on self-defence.

Once enacted, Japan’s new space law will effectively give substantial new powers to the Ministry of Defence – a highly controversial branch of the bureaucracy that has only had full ministry status since last year.

Any extension of the MoD’s powers is viewed with grave suspicion by the majority of Japanese, who support the war-renouncing Article 9 of their constitution.

At a global conference on Japanese pacifism last week its organiser, Tatsuya Yoshioka, told more than 10,000 delegates that Article 9 “is a treasure of the world”, and called for the international community to join in fighting the “proposed rearmament of Japan.” The reality of the law, say MPs opposed to its break with Japan’s constitution, is that by allowing the MoD to seek the “promotion of security” in space, it will now be free to engage in “star wars” military planning.

Japan is expected to use its self-granted right to launch several spy satellites and eventually develop its own ballistic missile shield. The timing of the panel’s decision, which came on the final day of a state visit by the Chinese President, was symbolic and potentially provocative.

President Hu Jintao’s five-day trip, which was overtly friendly and cast as the beginning of an “everlasting warm spring” between Asia’s two biggest powers, featured numerous assurances of cooperation. Despite recent history, the two countries “should recognise each other’s development objectively and accurately, and see each other as cooperative partners, not rivals. Both sides should support the other side’s peaceful development and see the other’s development as an opportunity, not a threat,” Mr Hu said.

Japan remains wary of China’s growing military might. The US is expected to welcome the new space law as paving the way for greater cooperation on defence shield development.

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