Reflecting that space is the common frontier of humanity, space science missions are almost always conducted as multi-national collaborations. In Japan, too, international cooperation has an important meaning in the field of space missions.

By floating balloons or launching rockets in Antarctica or the equatorial belt, for example, we can conduct observations impossible in the Japan area. In addition, by gathering together mutual technologies and experiences, we can conduct more fruitful observations.

By sharing tasks, it is possible to implement large-scale programs which would be difficult for single nations. For example, through simultaneous observations by several satellites and observatories or the ground, we have been able to observe the dynamic nature of the universe.

The following tables show research implemented under cooperation between foreign and Japanese research groups. (Names of country, place, etc., are those of the time of cooperation.)

In 1979, the US-Japan Permanent Executive Committee was established to promote collaboration projects between U.S. and Japan in the space field such as remote sensing and scientific observation, and to consider new collaboration projects. Following its establishment, a variety of collaboration projects have been implemented.

International cooperation on space science has been carried out under the framework called the IACG (Inter-Agency Consultative Group for Space Science), which originated in the Halley's comet exploration program in the 1980s.