Rakuten and AST SpaceMobile form satellite-to-phone venture backed by up to 148 billion yen in Japanese government support

AST SpaceMobile BlueBird satellites launch from Cape Canaveral
AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellites lift off from Cape Canaveral. AST SpaceMobile will supply satellites for the Rakuten AST direct-to-device network in Japan.

Rakuten Group and AST SpaceMobile will build a satellite network that talks directly to ordinary phones in Japan. The two companies agreed on November 6 to establish Rakuten AST, a joint venture announced on Monday, and the venture is set to receive up to 148 billion yen — about $1 billion — in Japanese government support over roughly three years.

Rakuten will hold 51 percent of the voting rights in the venture, with a Japanese subsidiary of AST SpaceMobile holding the rest. The support comes through Japan's J-LEO satellite communications project, administered by the Communications and Information Network Association of Japan, after the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications selected a joint proposal from Rakuten's preparatory company and Rakuten Mobile. AST SpaceMobile will supply the satellites, which use mid-band spectrum, and the companies aim to begin domestic operations by the end of March 2029.

The network is meant to reach places terrestrial mobile coverage cannot, and to keep phones working when disasters knock out ground networks — a familiar problem in earthquake-prone Japan. Rakuten Mobile separately plans to begin commercial testing of a direct-to-device service before the end of this year using AST SpaceMobile's existing infrastructure.

The companies' joint release states the November 6 agreement, the 51-49 split, the 148 billion yen ceiling and the March 2029 target, and Mobile World Live, Telecoms.com and market wires all report the same figures. One point of timing is worth keeping straight: the government's selection of the Rakuten proposal came in June, so Monday's news is the joint venture and the funding behind it, not a new award.

For Rakuten, the venture is a differentiator for a mobile business still fighting for scale in Japan; its chairman, Hiroshi Mikitani, called the project a key pillar of Rakuten Mobile's network strategy. For AST SpaceMobile, Japan becomes a funded anchor market for its satellite-to-phone technology. The next marker is Rakuten Mobile's commercial test before the year is out.