On 17 January 2023, on the margins of the EU-Japan Space Dialogue, representatives of the European Commission and the Government of Japan signed the Copernicus Cooperation Arrangement. The objective is to facilitate reciprocal data sharing of Earth Observation data between the EU and Japan.

Copernicus is the European Union's Earth observation programme that offers services based on satellite Earth Observation and in-situ (non-space) data. The efforts of Japan and the EU to cooperate in this area represent a milestone towards expanding the uptake of space-based data to tackle global challenges such as climate change, food security and disaster prevention, among others.

The technical implementation of the Arrangement will be led by the EU-Japan Copernicus Coordination Group, which will include the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI) and its Space Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the European Commission.