September 9, 2020 Result of Appeal for Opinions on Draft Ministerial Ordinance, Notices, and Official Directive for Partial Revision of Ministerial Ordinance Regulating Radio Equipment and Related Conditions and Report from Radio Regulatory Council

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) made an appeal for opinions from Thursday, July 16 through Friday, August 14, 2020, on a draft ministerial ordinance, notices, and an official directive for the partial revision of the Ministerial Ordinance Regulating Radio Equipment and related conditions for the introduction of an advanced non-geostationary satellite system using the L-band. As a result, MIC received one opinion, and accordingly, MIC has decided to open the submitted opinion, along with MIC’s view on the opinion.
With consideration of the results of the appeal for opinions, MIC submitted an inquiry today to the Radio Regulatory Council (Chaired by YOSHIDA Susumu, professor emeritus, Kyoto University) about the matters related to the drafted ministerial ordinance, etc. Then, MIC received a report today stating its approval as drafted.

1. Background

A technical study has been conducted since 1995 on the existing mobile satellite communication system in the L-band by satellite constellation using non-geostationary satellites. The Telecommunications Technology Council made a partial report of April 24, 1997, on technical requirements for systems that use time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) for service links in the 1,600 MHz band. TDMA- and FDMA-based services have been provided in Japan. Recently, existing satellite operators started planning to upgrade the current satellites, from which a higher communications speed is expected, and the advanced satellites will be used for aircraft safety communications. The early introduction of the satellites in Japan is expected. The Satellite Communications System Subcommittee (Chief Investigator: ANDO Makoto, professor emeritus, Tokyo Institute of Technology), Department on Information and Communications Technology, Information and Communications Council, has been studying the upgrading of the system since May 2017. As a result of the study, MIC received a partial report on February 13, 2019, from the Information and Communications Council (Chaired by UCHIYAMADA Takeshi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Toyota Motor Corporation).
In response to the report, MIC drafted a ministerial ordinance, notices, and an official directive for the partial revision of the Ministerial Ordinance Regulating Radio Equipment and related conditions. These revisions are for the introduction of an advanced system for an increase in communications speed. Accordingly, MIC made an appeal for opinions from July 16 through August 14, 2020, on a draft ministerial ordinance, etc. for the partial revision of the Ministerial Ordinance Regulating Radio Equipment and related conditions.

2. Report from Radio Regulatory Council

With consideration of the results of the appeal for opinions, MIC submitted an inquiry today to the Radio Regulatory Council about the matters related to the drafted ministerial ordinance, etc. Then, MIC received a report today stating its approval as drafted.

3. Future plans

With consideration of the report from the Radio Regulatory Council and the result of the appeal for opinions, MIC will promptly revise the ministerial ordinance, etc.

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  The published materials are in Japanese only.

Reference

• Appeal for Opinions on Draft Ministerial Ordinance, Notices, and Official Directive for Partial Revision of Ministerial Ordinance Regulating Radio Equipment and Related Conditions (2020/7/15）