Back from the brink: Akatsuki returns to Venus

Japan has a surprisingly ambitious space exploration program, much of which seems to go completely unnoticed by the west. At about 2e9 $/year (about 1/10 of the founding NASA gets) they've successfully launched:

* a solar sail (navigatable by electrically changing reflectivity of parts of the sail)

* two asteroid sample return missions (one succeeded, one in progress)

* tow missions utilizing ion engines (Hayabusa I and II, that's on par with NASA)

* missions to mars and venus (Nozomi, the mars mission failed, the venus mission Akatsuki is delayed, see the article)

* Kounotori resupply vehicle to the ISS with 6 metric tonnes payload.

* I gues a lot more that I'm not aware of.

They have their own rocket launch facility on japan soil (Tanegashima Space Center) launching domestically developed rockets with > 16 metric tonnes payload to LEO. I wonder how long it will take them to develop a manned space program (or maybe they're smart enough to not waste any money on that).