When Nobu Okada founded Astroscale in 2013, there were only a few Japanese space startups. But in the past few years, as Astroscale has gained global prominence with its vision of sustainable space, Japan’s space startup industry has grown to include more than 40 ventures. Okada says that space has become more democratized in Japan and the Japanese government has promoted policies to encourage people and companies to join the space industry, leading to significant growth.