The Japanese government, working with private ventures, announced plans on 20, March to establish a nearly billion-dollar fund to support the development of space startups in the country.

The new initiative announced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe includes the following parts:

• A pool of 100 billion yen ($940 million) of venture capital which will be offered over five years to companies in the space sector in the country. That funding will be provided by the Development Bank of Japan, Industrial Innovation Organization, and other organizations.

• “S-Matching” program, is a program that matches investors, including individual investors and companies, with startup companies. Government documents listed 46 members of this program, ranging from satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT to Japan Airlines Corporation and Nikon.

• Projects to find talent for space startups and technical cooperation between companies and the Japanese space agency JAXA.

Another aspect of the initiative includes the potential to change Japanese law to support companies in the satellite servicing and space resources industries. That could be patterned on laws passed in the United States and Luxembourg to give companies rights to resources extracted from the moon or asteroids.