Reasons why no japanese team competed

Close, but it seems to be a bit more complicated than that. Although there seemse to be a definate hierarchical system in the workplace, decisions seem to be much more inclusive of the employees in the company. Translation: in order to get any real changes in a company, most of the employees are asked for their input, and eventually a policy change might happen. This makes it rather difficult for any large corporation (read, the ones who could likely bankroll such a project) to focussed enough to change direction to put out a competitive aerospace program, it seems. Beyond that, I can't tell you more, as I'm just a gaijin here.

I take it gaijin is somewhat similar to the Mexican gringo, or the somewhat more universal dumb-ass Yankee?

Anyways, it seems like a truly massive marketing program would be necessary -- something on a truly mythical scale. Tough. Very, very tough.

Hello, spacecowboy,

as far as I know Gaijin is beyond Gringo - or can be at least. I've heard and read that japanese daughters who married a Non-Japanese or got a child with a Non_japanese have kicked out of their family or have been hidden because of having shamed their family. Japanese men doing so are reported to have suffered a similar fate or had to commit seppuku (harakiri). May be that this is history but there are reports here that it's harder to be a Gaijin in Japan than a Gringo in Mexico, Latin-America at all, a Negro or an Indian in the US in history, a non-believer in muslim countries, a Negro during Apartheid etc.

But these I have been reported and told only - slycker will know it better for sure.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

That my friend, is too extreme. No one cuts their stomach open nowadays in Japan although the preferred mode of sucide in Japan lately seems to be internet group thing involving driving up to a deserted spot and lighting up charcoal... (slycker would prob know)

While the orgins of such slang for westerns and 'outsiders' in general have normally crude beginnings ie. gwailo used by cantonese in Hong Kong which literally means 'ghost/devil peson', or 'farang' in Thailand, the impact of such societal tags lessens over time.

Ah... Yankee now is universally regarded as a slang for Americans. But many many many years ago, within the good ol' USA, snooty Yanks are folks up north of the Madison-Dixon line according to the genteel folks down at Richmond, VA. And some still do!

*Gentle nudge back to the original topic.

I would try to write letters to see if the Japanese might adopt Truax's sea-based launch system. This way--every dollar spent on space also employs shipbuilders as well.

Many? Well, normally, we call 'em damnyankees -- yes, it is one word.

But yes, back to the topic.

Interesting diversion on societal connotations, though.

For an incredibly-delayed reply,.... and yes, completely off the original topic...

Japan today is very different from the Japan that you may have read of in history textbooks. In the last 60 years, it has changed and developed very rapidly, and there are no 'mutilations' or family expulsions that I have heard about in the 'recent' past. Gaijin is often a derrogitory abbreviation of the full term, gaikokujin, which is itself a more respectful word for 'foreigner' (this applies to all non-japanese people, including other asian people - not just white people). It's now at the point that most foreigners have little problem referring to themselves as gaijin (it's shorter and easier to say) to eachother, but Japanese people will never call you Gaijin (at least, not in front of you). Everything that I have seen here (I live in southern Japan) points to the Japanese people now being very friendly towards foreigners (much more so than most people in North America, it seems). The people here are great, and I have many co-workers and friends who have 'mixed' relationships - both ways, with a Japanese man and western woman, and western man with Japanese woman (it seems as if this has created relatively little tension, but I'm not really all that sure that I would see/hear about it if it did exist)

As for suicide, that seems to be pretty much on par with North America, in my experience, with regards to frequency (because there are so many fewer guns here, the methods are usually much more ... delicate?)

Back to the original topic,
I just got back from the world fair (Expo) in Nagoya, and was somewhat disappointed in that I didn't see any indicators of private/corporate interest in developing space vehicles. I did see, however, demonstrations of new power-cell and more efficient solar-cell technology that may be useful. I didn't manage to hit up all the booths (although I think I did pretty well for only one full day among the throngs of people there), so I may likely have missed something, had it been there.

There are building the H-2B so that is something.

I would gladly let them cane me as a gaijen if they would build HLLVs.

No Xprize team but they love their noodles!
http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html

hehe, i love JAXA, if nothing else, they can be extremely creative sometimes and ramen noodles = awesome. period. then again, this is coming from a college kid who will gladly spend $4.99 on a 48 pack of ramen that will provide a good month of meals

Now, come on! You're IN-state. I haven't dropped to that level yet, but then again, our dining hall provides reasonably edible food... I'll likely get there eventually.

Okay, here are a crapload of links with respect to Japan's (semi-) private companies involvement with space technology:

For private space transport, Kawasaki heavy industries seems to be the most active, frequently partnering with JAXA on projects.

english:
http://www.khi.co.jp/products/space/

japanese:
http://www.khi.co.jp/products/space/index-j.html

not much info, but on the japanese page, they show their HII launchpad/complex

the following link, however, shows Kawasaki's involvement in space in greater detail:
http://www.khi.co.jp/aero/space/space_e.html


Mitsubishi also seems to have their fingers in space a little bit
They already have been working with sattelites for a while, but also seem to have put a lot of R&D into beamed power:
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/bu ... index.html
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/bu ... index.html
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/bu ... dex02.html

JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, is at:
http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html

an interesting (old) link w.r.t. Japanese rocketry development, including the decision process to use SSTO and VTVL:
http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/jrs_ ... rism.shtml

Ekke, for you:
the Japanese Planetary Society
http://www.planetary.or.jp/en/index.html

Perhaps more interestingly, Space Future Japan (in Japanese)
http://www.spacefuturejapan.com/

They also have an english part of their site, but it has slightly less info on it:
http://www.spacefuturejapan.com/sfj_english.htm

Uchuumaru is somewhere between thinking of and actually building hardware - it was planned for 2005, and it seems that they have done something.

http://www.uchuumaru.com

translated:
http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en ... n%26sa%3DN
That's all, folks!

There does appear to be some active interest:

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=ne ... &id=352307

There's an international space conference underway in Japan right now (unfortunately, no where near me - even if I were able to get in to observe)

-ben