AHC: Have Japan as the 3rd country to send a man in to space

[Anime Ninja]

Any POD after Vostok 1 and Freedom 7 have Japan decide that they will have enough of a space program to be the 3rd country to have a maned space program.

How would that effect JAXA and NASA working together?

Will they use a capsule or the HOPE space craft?

Bonus points, they have a smaller station in orbit with the ISS.

 

[Goats-&-Bolts]

There was a thread a few months ago on a similar topic:

AHC: Japan places a man on the moon by 1985

So I am writing this after reading a number of books on "Japan rising" theme from the 1980s. Looking forward, I will try to write the ATL story where Japan put a man into space in 1978 and followed by a series of aggressive space launches, put someone on the moon by 1985. Looking forward to...

www.alternatehistory.com

Putting a man in orbit is easier than a crewed landing on the Moon but some of the issues brought up in previous thread (like the restrictions placed on Japan’s aerospace industry post-WW2) still apply here.