In a meeting held this week in Tokyo, Japan, between the Minister of Science and Technology, Eliezer (Mudi) Zandberg, and the Minister of Science and Education of Japan, Takea Kawamura, the two ministers agreed on the establishment of joint work teams in order to examine and define areas for cooperation between Japan and Israel in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology , space and electronics
The two countries intend to fulfill the content of the scientific cooperation agreement that was signed between them in 1994. "I have a deep appreciation for the achievements of scientific research in Israel. Scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries will be for the benefit of all humanity," said Kawamura.
In the meeting, willingness was expressed, on both sides, to deepen the cooperation in the field of space as well. Ministers Zandberg and Kawamura agreed that the continuation of the discussions on this subject will be done directly between the space agencies of Israel (ISA) and Japan (JAXA).
Japan and Israel are two of eight countries in the world that have the knowledge and ability to build and launch satellites into space. Minister Kawamura expressed great appreciation for the position of the State of Israel in the field of space and said that he believes that cooperation in this field will contribute to improving the level of accuracy of Japanese projects. It should be noted that last year a launch attempt by the Japanese Space Agency failed, and since then further launch plans have been frozen until the cause of the malfunction, which caused an explosion during the launch, is clarified. Launches are expected to resume in 2005.
By 2006, Japan intends to reach the capability of launching warheads weighing up to 6 tons. Meeting this goal will provide Japan with the ability to compete in the global satellite launch market, which is currently dominated by the USA, France and Russia.
