On a day when President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held wide-ranging talks at the White House, the two administrations also sealed an agreement to bolster U.S.-Japanese cooperation on space with a signing ceremony at NASA's Washington headquarters.
Watch the event in the player above.
The two countries top diplomats, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, signed the agreement, with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida looking on.
Blinken said "we're entering a new chapter of space exploration" as they plan expeditions to the moon and Mars.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the two countries are "poised to unlock the secrets of the universe."
The Oval Office meeting and signing ceremony at NASA's Washington headquarters capped a weeklong tour for Kishida that took him to five European and North American capitals for talks on his effort to beef up Japan's security in a time of provocative Chinese and North Korean military action.
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"Our space programs have storied histories of barriers overcome and new worlds understood," Nelson said. "And so today, we chart new chapter in a continuing adventure together."
"It'll strengthen our partnership in areas like research on space, technology and transportation, robotic lunar surface missions, climate related missions, and our shared ambition to see a Japanese astronaut on the lunar surface," Blinken said.
Blinken said this week that the U.S.-Japan space cooperation framework was a "decade in the making" and "covers everything from joint research to working together to land the first woman and person of color on the moon."
He added that the U.S. and Japan agree that China is their "greatest shared strategic challenge" and confirmed that an attack in space would trigger a mutual defense provision in the U.S.-Japan security treaty.