Rakuten-AST JV to receive JPY148bn for Japan D2D network

By Rebecca Stone

A Rakuten Group and AST SpaceMobile joint venture is set to receive JPY148 billion ($937 million) in Japanese government funding to build a direct-to-device network, with domestic operations expected in March 2029. The network will use low Earth orbit satellites and mid-band spectrum.

What has been agreed?

Rakuten Group owns 51% of the venture, Rakuten AST, while a local subsidiary of AST SpaceMobile owns the remaining 49%. That gives Rakuten majority control of the Japanese operating company and AST a substantial minority stake. The announcement discloses no private-capital commitment from either owner.

Rakuten AST has been charged with fulfilling the Japan Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communications Project, a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications program. The project went to public tender and carries government financial support.

The public-tender route puts the venture within a government procurement process. The announcement gives no details on award conditions, disbursement stages or service-performance obligations. The scale of private investment needed alongside public support therefore remains unclear.

What will the service look like?

Rakuten and AST said the system should deliver “disaster-resilient, uninterrupted communications infrastructure” and strengthen Japan’s “economic security.” They also said the aim was to extend mobile coverage to areas with limited or no coverage and provide connectivity during emergencies.

Those commitments describe desired outcomes, not operating specifications. The announcement gives no satellite count, coverage footprint, supported handset list, capacity or throughput target, and no subscriber forecast. It also does not set out how the JPY148 billion is disbursed or what service obligations accompany it.

The schedule currently rests on two future checkpoints and one test. Rakuten Mobile plans commercial testing before year-end, while the joint venture targets domestic operations in March 2029. The test will use existing AST SpaceMobile infrastructure under a previous agreement, separate from operation of the new Japanese network.

What is happening before launch?

That test is the nearest stated commercial milestone, but the announcement does not define what “commercial testing” means. It gives no subscriber figure, tariff, handset requirement, coverage area, throughput measure or launch-market list. Nor does it show how many customers, if any, would pay before the wider network arrives.

Because the test relies on existing AST SpaceMobile infrastructure, it cannot establish the capacity, coverage or commercial demand of the joint venture’s planned March 2029 service. That gap matters if the project is meant to remove coverage gaps rather than simply demonstrate satellite-to-phone connectivity.

What role do AI and industry play?

Rakuten Mobile will work with AST SpaceMobile on advancing the use of AI edge computing and developing AI-based spectrum management technology. Both remain development programs in the announcement. Neither carries a deployment date, technical target, named product, customer or revenue figure, so neither should yet be treated as a commercial offering.

The partners also said they wanted to extend use of the system beyond mobile operators into industries they describe as connectivity-reliant. Their named sectors are:

• logistics
• infrastructure monitoring
• construction
• agriculture

The industrial ambition is not backed in the announcement by a named customer, pilot, contract value or revenue timetable. Rakuten and AST have described potential users, not committed deployments. The same distinction applies to emergency coverage: extending service to areas with limited or no coverage is a goal until the build produces a published footprint and service-level data.

What comes next?

Three milestones now frame the project: commercial testing before year-end, fulfillment of the MIC-backed LEO project and domestic operations in March 2029. Until Rakuten and AST publish coverage, handset support, throughput and funding conditions, the promise of uninterrupted connectivity and industrial expansion remains an objective rather than a demonstrated result.