New Development Of Japan's Space Legislation And Its Inspiration To China

The new era of space science and technology has already arrived in the 21st century, the legal issues of space activities increasingly complex. Therefore, many countries in the world have realized the importance of having a comprehensive domestic space law for their space industry development, and have thus made their own domestic space laws. Under these circumstances, conformed to its development situation of space technology, Japan passed the Basic Space Law in 2008, and caused extensive attention. This paper will use the methods of normative and comparison to research. Firstly, analyze the reasons that Japan carried out the domestic space legislation. Secondly, discuss the main contents, impacts, and analyze the forecasted development of Japan's space industry after this law carried out, as well as Japan's possible future legislation of space. Lastly, analyze the inspiration that Japan's Basic Space Law has brought for China, in view of problems of China's space legislation.This paper argues that the outer space law is a new branch of international law, and it was created with the continuous progress of space technology. The outer space law includes two parts in origin that are international space legislation and domestic space legislation. The domestic law is an important manner for country to fulfill international obligation, and is an important complement to the international space law. Japan issued the Basic Space Law which is a comprehensive domestic space law in order to solve the problems of low level legislation and limited commercial development. A series of core changes of the law lifted the history restrictions of military use of outer space, enhance the coordination between space management agencies, and promote the commercial development of Japan's outer space. Japan adopted the parent-led legislation model which emphasizes the role of the comprehensive space law. Its objectives and executions are clear and strong. It can guide the construction of domestic space legislation fundamentally. In order to solve the problems such as low-level legislation, legislative gaps and lack of coordination between the space agencies, China should learn the successful legislative experience from Japan, and establish a complete legislative system as soon as possible.