Presidents of the Italian and Japanese Space Agencies, Commissioner General for Expo Osaka, Vice President of the Lazio Region, President of the Regional Council of Lazio Region, representatives of Italian and Japanese companies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me first of all, thank all of you for your participation in this Space Economy Forum, which is the fifth event on Space organized by the Embassy with the cooperation of ASI and JAXA in the past two and a half years.
In fact, following the decision in January 2023 by our Prime Ministers to elevate our bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership, Space was one of the six high tech priority sectors selected by our governments to expand the industrial and scientific collaborations between Italy and Japan.
In this context we launched the “Italy Innovation Days” in Japan to connect as many Italian and Japanese companies and start-ups as possible, presenting the Italian technologies in the six sectors and promoting new ideas and opportunities, with the long-term vision of turning dialogue into collaboration and collaboration into industrial partnerships.
As one of the most dynamic and innovative sectors, bilateral cooperation in the space domain has quickly expanded beyond that between our space Agencies, increasingly involving competent Ministries – now engaged in a strategic dialogue – as well as private companies, research centers and universities.
In this framework, local governments are playing an important role. Veneto, Puglia and Lazio presentations of their respective space ecosystems at Expo Osaka have shown how important the space sector is for the development of infrastructures, innovation and new technologies and therefore for the growth of the regional economies.
In these and other Regions, Italy’s space industrial clusters – dynamic, entrepreneurial and deeply rooted in advanced manufacturing and research – are emerging as global key actors in the new space economy, contributing to the development of satellite technology, aerospace engineering, and AI-driven applications and downstream services.
In this backdrop, I strongly believe that today’s discussions and exchanges are particularly valuable, since they focus on what we believe is a critical next step: enabling meaningful business matching between Italian and Japanese companies and creating real momentum for industrial collaborations. In this regard, today’s forum is a sort of sectorial continuation of the Italy-Japan Business Group forum held in Rome last Tuesday.
Italy and Japan are both nations of advanced manufacturing, with robust aerospace ecosystems and long traditions of scientific excellence. Our long lasting dialogue must now turn into something more ambitious: a genuine strategic partnership for innovation, security and industrial leadership that will also unleash talent exchanges between our countries, creating opportunities for Italian and Japanese engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs.
All fundamentals to take this step forward are in place, but we have two common challenges.
First, we must develop a more structured strategic dialogue bringing together the key players from both countries: our Agencies, our Ministries, our industrial associations and leading space companies. In the “new era” of our bilateral relations, this is of utmost importance in order to identify complementary strengths, align industrial priorities, and design joint initiatives across the space value chain, from upstream technologies to downstream applications.
Second, we need to translate this enhanced dialogue into joint ventures, co-development of technologies, access to each other’s markets and an increasing joint participation in multilateral space initiatives. In this regard, Japan’s recent establishment of the JAXA Space Strategic Fund offers a powerful model of how to catalyze innovation. We would welcome the opportunity for Italy to participate in this effort through potential co-funding arrangements, with the aim of supporting joint development projects and scaling bilateral ventures that are globally competitive.
Let me conclude by thanking every one of you for your participation and your commitment. Your presence here today, at Expo Osaka-Kansai 2025, is a testament to how far we have come as well as a sign of the great journey that we will be able to make in the future, together.
Grazie a tutti.