As we noted earlier this month in these columns, that decision marks a highly important reversal of more than a half-century of Japanese policy refusing to contemplate taking any action to militarize space.

The Diet, the lower and main house of the Japanese Parliament, formally approved the legislation that will remove exclusive control of space policy from the country's Technology, Space and Education ministries. Space policy will now be shaped by the entire Cabinet, the legislation says.

Significantly, it also included a provision to set up a space policy task force that will report directly to the prime minister. Effectively, that will be the thriving center that shapes national space policy in the future with the education, space and technology ministries sidelined to provide only input.

And with the whole Japanese Cabinet now designated by the legislation to carry the responsibility of making space policy collectively, the three old civilian ministries now will be outweighed by the heavy clout of Japan's Defense Ministry, which only last year was upgraded from agency status to having its own Cabinet minister.

As expected, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda easily carried the legislation through the Diet, supported by its coalition ally Komeito and the main opposition group, Minshuto -- the Democratic Party. Only the Communists and some pacifist members of the Parliament voted against the legislation.

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