JAXA in the context of List of European Space Agency programs and missions

The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), and CSA (Canada). As the largest space station ever constructed, it primarily serves as a platform for conducting scientific experiments in microgravity and studying the space environment.

The station is divided into two main sections: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS), developed by Roscosmos, and the US Orbital Segment (USOS), built by NASA, ESA, JAXA, and CSA. A striking feature of the ISS is the Integrated Truss Structure, which connect the station's vast system of solar panels and radiators to its pressurized modules. These modules support diverse functions, including scientific research, crew habitation, storage, spacecraft control, and airlock operations. The ISS has eight docking and berthing ports for visiting spacecraft. The station orbits the Earth at an average altitude of 400 kilometres (250 miles) and circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day.

Kibō (Japanese: きぼう; lit. 'Hope'), also known as the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), is a Japanese science module for the International Space Station (ISS) developed by JAXA. It is the largest single ISS module, and is attached to the Harmony module. The first two pieces of the module were launched on Space Shuttle missions STS-123 and STS-124. The third and final components were launched on STS-127.

Government space agencies, established by the governments of countries and regional agencies (groupings of countries) are established as a means for advocating for engaging in activities related to outer space, exploitation of space systems, and/or space exploration. The listings summarize all countries' and regional authorities' space agencies with a comparative summary of demonstrated capabilities.

The objectives include national prestige, exploitation of remote sensing information, communications, education, and economic development. These agencies tend to be civil in nature (vs military) and serve to advance the benefits of exploitation and/or exploration of space. They span the spectrum from old organizations with small budgets to mature national or regional enterprises such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States, the European Space Agency (ESA) which coordinates for more than 20 constituent countries, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos) of Russia, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The Japanese government has established National Research and Development Agencies (Japanese: 国立研究開発法人, romanized: Kokuritsu Kenkyū Kaihatsu Hōjin) that fall under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

1. National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)
2. RIKEN
3. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ)
4. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
5. National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST)
6. National Institute of Genetics (NIG)
7. National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB)
8. National Institute of Informatics (NII)
9. National Institute of Public Health (NIPH)
10. National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM)
11. National Cancer Center (NCC)
12. National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
13. National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID)
14. National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS)
15. National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP)
16. National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (NIBIOHN)

Satoshi Furukawa (古川 聡, Furukawa Satoshi; born April 4, 1964) is a Japanese surgeon and JAXA astronaut. Furukawa was assigned to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on long-duration missions Expedition 28/29 (2011) and Expedition 69/70 (2023-2024).

GCOM (Global Change Observation Mission), is a JAXA project of long-term observation of Earth environmental changes. As a part of Japan's contributions to GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), GCOM will be continued for 10 to 15 years with observation and utilization of global geophysical data such as precipitation, snow, water vapor, aerosol, for climate change prediction, water management, and food security. On May 18, 2012, the first satellite "GCOM-W" (nickname "Shizuku") was launched. On December 23, 2017, the second satellite "GCOM-C1" (nickname "Shikisai") was launched.

Expedition 18 was the 18th permanent crew of the International Space Station (ISS).The first two crew members, Michael Fincke, and Yuri Lonchakov were launched on 12 October 2008, aboard Soyuz TMA-13. With them was astronaut Sandra Magnus, who joined the Expedition 18 crew after launching on STS-126 and remained until departing on STS-119 on 25 March 2009. She was replaced by JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, who arrived at the ISS on STS-119 on 17 March 2009. Gregory Chamitoff, who joined Expedition 18 after Expedition 17 left the station, ended his stay aboard ISS and returned to Earth with the STS-126 crew.

Expedition 73 was the 73rd long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-26 on 19 April 2025 with JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi taking over the ISS command and concluded with the undocking of Soyuz MS-27 on 9 December 2025. It continued the extensive scientific research conducted aboard the ISS, focusing on various fields, including biology, human physiology, physics, and materials science. The crew members also maintain and upgrade the space station systems.

Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT), also known as Ibuki (Japanese: いぶき, Hepburn: Ibuki; meaning "breath"), is an Earth observation satellite and the world's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse gas monitoring. It measures the densities of carbon dioxide and methane from 56,000 locations on the Earth's atmosphere. The GOSAT was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and launched on 23 January 2009, from the Tanegashima Space Center. Japan's Ministry of the Environment, and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) use the data to track gases causing the greenhouse effect, and share the data with NASA and other international scientific organizations.