Japan Aerospace Bureau

"NASA explores space, USAF fights in space, ESA set up places in space and sends people up, Japan builds in space, and the Soviets lift things in Orbit while watching the Americans."

- Near Orbit

The Japan Aerospace Bureau exist for space exploration and construction and various other activities carried out beyond Earth. In the Cyberpunk universe it's one of few space agencies in the world. The JAB has mutiple ports located in all over Japan, some of the more notable (more famous) are the Tokyo, Chiba, and Osaka ports.

Overview
The Japanese Aerospace Bureau traded the ability to mass produce cheap, efficient workshacks for access to space via ESA spaceplanes. As a result, close to 85% of all workshacks and space stations are Japanese built. The JAB does not have much high mass lifting capacity or passenger lift ability, although Japanese technology built the Killimanjaro massdriver (This was the first massdriver used on a Japanese railroad in the 1980's!) The Japanese are also the main manufactures of heavy colony construction equipment, including their recent "mobile construction suits" and invented technology used to create "crete," a mixture of native soils and chemical brew used as a form of high-tech cement in construction of both Luna and Martian colonies and used in building the O'Neill colony at L-5. Recently, the Japanese are beginning to worry about their aggressive EEC partners. They have taken to arming their MC suits with anti-sat weapons.

The Japanese also lead the way in space newtech, diving headlong into the nanotech revolution. Most of the active asteroid mining equipment and life support suits used in the Belt are of Japanese manufacture, and some of the latest technology just appearing from the Japanese research labs into commercial production indicates they are far more technically advanced than many Western corporates had feared.

NASA's Chryse base sports a 58% Japanese presence and current construction of a vast network of living quarters under the existing base is totally regulated by JAB. JAB is also investing heavily in exploration of the Belt, and already has close to a dozen experimental laboratory/factories in operation.

The Japanese are the primary supplier of habitats, parts, gear, and cheap lifting systems for light payloads. They control 50-60% of all massdriver tech. The Japanese want to help NASA as this will give them a heavy payload lifting ability of their own, as well as a crack at the Asteroids and Mars.

Reference
Bureau japonais de l'aéronautique