Brussels, 17 January 2023
Today, the Commission has signed a Cooperation Arrangement with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan to facilitate data sharing of Earth Observation data on the basis of reciprocity.
The EU and Japan have a long-standing cooperation in space and share common strategic interests. The new arrangement will provide mutual benefits to both parties: the EU will provide access to data and services from Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the EU Space Programme. Japan will provide the Commission, for the purposes of Copernicus, with free and open access to data from its non-commercial Earth observation satellites.
Copernicus services, which deliver near-real-time data on a global scale, will benefit from a higher quality and greater precision thanks to the additional data obtained from Japanese satellites and in-situ sources. Both sides also commit to accelerate the use of satellite data for cooperation in a number of areas of common interest, including the long-term management of natural resources, monitoring of marine and coastal areas, pollution and biodiversity, climate change adaptation and global CO2 greenhouse gas monitoring, disaster risk reduction and food security, among others.
The Arrangement will boost the uptake of Copernicus data and services world-wide, and help to promote Copernicus as a global best practice and accepted standard internationally.
More information about Copernicus international cooperation is available here. The list of existing Copernicus cooperation arrangements is available here.
Source – EU Commission