Japanese Rice Pictures

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is Japan's space agency; it conducts space and planetary research, aviation research, and development of rockets and satellites. It is a participant in the International Space Station: the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) was added to the International Space Station during Space Shuttle assembly flights in 2008. It has plans in space exploration, such as launching a space probe to Venus, Akatsuki, in 2010, developing the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter to be launched in 2013, and building a moon base by 2030. On September 14, 2007, it launched lunar orbit explorer "SELENE" (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) on an H-IIA (Model H2A2022) carrier rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. SELENE is also known as Kaguya, the lunar princess of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Kaguya is the largest lunar probe mission since the Apollo program. Its mission is to gather data on the moon's origin and evolution. It entered into a lunar orbit on October 4, flying in a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km (62 mi).
Infrastructure
As of 2008, 46.4 percent of energy in Japan is produced from petroleum, 21.4 percent from coal, and 16.7 percent from natural gas, 9.7 percent from nuclear power, and 2.9 percent from hydro power. Nuclear power produces 22.5 percent of Japan's electricity.