A cooperative agreement was concluded between Japan and ESRO (predecessor of ESA) on 12 December 1972.
At the beginning, there was only a limited exchange of information between ESA and STA (Science and Technology Agency), NASDA (National Space Development Agency), ISAS (Institute of Space Science), MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Japan. Then meetings have evolved to a cooperative action carried out in different areas, such as Space Science with the ISO mission, Earth Observation with JERS-1 and ERS-2 calibration activities and data policy definition; then cooperation have been reached in the field of telecommunications with OICETS/Artemis experiment, robotics on ETS VII, Hope/Hermes programme.
On 1 October 2003, after the dissolution of NASDA, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) succeeded all rights and obligations of NASDA, ISAS and NAL (National Laboratory of Japan) in the relations with ESA.

The sub-series contains documents concerning the main areas of cooperation between ESA and Japan: Space Science, Earth Observation, Telecommunications, Product Assurance, Hope/Hermes, Space Transportation, Space Station and Space Experiment, Network Operations, Technologies, General Affaires.
It includes documents on meetings, such as reports, correspondence, working papers; press info and documentation on various projects and programmes.

Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish

Photograph, Textual