Hokkaido Space Summit 2025 Opens: Envisioning Future of Space Industry
Panelists discussing space industry development, referring to examples from the Chubu region. From left: Mr. Kazuya Sega, Mr. Miyamoto, Mr. Kawai, Mr. Hidenori Tsuzuki, and Mr. Hiroki Furihata (Around 10:30 a.m. on the 9th, at Bell Classic Obihiro. Photo by Takuya Sugai)
The "Hokkaido Space Summit 2025" Japan's largest-scale conference on the space business, opened on October 9th at Bell Classic Obihiro in Obihiro City. The theme for this fifth edition is "Hokkaido: A Stage for Challenge. Let's Draw the Universe." Spanning two days for the first time, the event features 34 speakers from Japan and abroad through the 10th. Through lectures and talk sessions on the forefront of business and human resource development, the conference explores the future of the space industry.(By Kyohei Tsuda)
The event is organized by an executive committee comprising the town of Taiki, Space Cotan (which operates the Hokkaido Spaceport, or HOSPO), the Tokachi Foundation, Obihiro Tourism and Convention Association, the Obihiro Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Obihiro Products Association, the Tokachi Regional Federation of Chambers of Commerce, and Tokachi Tourism Federation. Hokkaido Prefecture co-hosted the event, continuing from last year.
Yoshinori Odagiri, CEO of Space Cotan, explained in his opening remarks the future vision to establish two large-scale launch sites and a runway at HOSPO by the 2040s. "We will develop launch sites capable of launching large rockets and deploy vehicles that transport from point A to point B like aircraft, or carry cargo to the International Space Station," he stated. Noting that the development would cost hundreds of billions of yen, he added, "We will proceed steadily together with Hokkaido."
On the morning of the 9th, with about 300 attendees, two sessions were held. In "Learning from Manufacturing Pioneers: Creation and Cultivation of the Space Industry," Mitsuru Kawai, an Executive Fellow at Toyota Motor Corporation, and others took the stage to consider the path toward building the space industry based on initiatives from the Chubu region, an advanced manufacturing area.
Fumitake Miyamoto, Representative Director of the Chubu Center for Social and Economic Research, noted, "Hokkaido has abundant human resources. It has the appeal of two national technical universities and four national technical colleges, as well as land." He expressed his expectation, saying, "I hope we can team up with the Chubu region to work on completing the supply chain domestically." At the end of the session, Yutaka Kurokawa, Mayor of Taiki Town, also took the microphone and said, "We will advance activities to broaden the base, leveraging the advantage of having a launch site."
A session titled "Global Movements Toward Spaceport Standardization and Mutual Use" was also held, featuring spaceport officials from the United States, Australia, and other countries around the world.
(This English translation was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial staff.)
宇宙サミット開幕
◆日本語訳はこちら
・宇宙産業の未来描く 世界動向、人材も焦点 宇宙サミット開幕－十勝毎日新聞電子版（2025/10/09）
