Japan's renewed push for homegrown airliner faces turbulent path

After Mitsubishi SpaceJet failure, Tokyo will seek multiple development partners

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Development of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' SpaceJet, pictured here in 2020, was shelved in 2023. (Photo by Koji Uema) 

RIHO NAGAO, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Japan's new effort to develop a next-generation airliner by 2035 will seek to involve multiple private-sector companies, in a departure from the failed Mitsubishi SpaceJet program, but faces the same uncertainties.

A draft strategy unveiled Wednesday by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry acknowledges that "it is difficult for any single private-sector company to develop an aircraft."

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