US and Japan welcome AST-Rakuten LEO cooperation

A U.S.-Japan joint statement welcomed Rakuten Group and AST SpaceMobile cooperation on low Earth orbit satellite infrastructure under the Technology Prosperity Deal. Advanced Television said the State Department release followed an Oct. 4 Kyoto meeting between OSTP Director Michael Kratsios and Japan's Toshiharu Furukawa. SatNews said a joint protocol dated Oct. 5 formalized inclusion of the project. Direct fetch of the State.gov page returned 403; the quoted welcome sentence matches the official snippet. The statement does not itself award funding or a spectrum license.