Make no mistake about it, this is happening not just with the blessing but with the pushing of the U.S. And it's about 'containing' and encircling China as well as maintaining U.S. military domination on land, on sea, and now in spece:
FROM THE ARTICLE: 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.