How a Secret Japanese Satellite Deal Just Supercharged Ukraine’s War Intel

Japan had never before shared classified geospatial data with another country.

An illustrative image of the compact, high-resolution QPS-SAR orbiting the Earth. The satellite was developed by a Japanese startup, the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS).

On April 21, 2025, Japan did something it had never done before: it handed over its most advanced form of space-based surveillance to a foreign military.

And not just a…