The title isn't fair to the established international role Japan plays in the aerospace industry or space. The Boeing 'Dreamliner' is one-third made in Japan.

The title isn't fair to the established international role Japan plays in the aerospace industry or space. The Boeing 'Dreamliner' is one-third made in Japan. Re-supply missions to the International Space Station have been completed without incident by Japanese craft. Even the largest module on the ISS is Japanese. Japan has been busy. Before WW2 Japan was in possession of a remarkably large fleet of aircraft carriers with the planes to go with them. In the post WW2 years the electronic components for those planes bombing Korea had to come from somewhere and Japanese people were doing all the hard work making and packaging those avionic nuts and bolts, even if for Western customers in the defence sector. So it is a long history tied into global projects and multi-national companies, not some 'secret effort to get started now'. It is a tale of evolution, not some nationalist effort with no long term goals. When the USA decided to put a man on the moon there were 400,000+ people working for NASA, directly or with a contractor. The trip to the moon was chosen just because it hadn't been done and it was unlikely that the Soviets were going to do it any time soon. There was no plan for a next step, once the goal had been achieved. Hence we ended up with low-earth-orbit projects and no effort to put a man on Mars or establish a lunar base for further exploration. Japan has 'quietly' got on with the real projects that are needed when it comes to aerospace and space, there has been no grand-standing or opting out.