TOKYO -- A Japanese project to deploy a three-satellite system providing enhanced GPS navigation signals and communications could be delayed a year or more because of indecision over which government ministry will pay to operate the system, according to government and industry officials.

Four separate ministries are responsible for the government's 90 billion yen ($814 million) share of the cost to develop the Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), tentatively planned for launch near the end of the decade. But with the deadline for submitting ministerial budget requests for 2006 fast approaching, none has stepped up to take responsibility for operating the system, according to Takashi Inoue, manager of the Japan Business Federation's Environment, Science and Technology Bureau.

Government participants in the QZSS program hail from four ministries: Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Land, Infrastructure and Transport; Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications; and Economy, Trade and Industry. All are reluctant to take responsibility for QZSS operations because the funding and personnel required would squeeze their ability to take on other space projects, Inoue said.

If the haggling continues deep into August, the agencies will miss the deadline for including QZSS in their budget plans for fiscal year 2006, which begins April 1.

Japan's Ministry of Finance typically finalizes budgets for the various government agencies by December.

"QZSS is in a very difficult situation," Inoue said in a July 29 interview. "The problem is that there are a lot of government departments who have to prepare their budgets, but the ministries have reached no agreement on funds for the operational side."

The QZSS project was hatched in 2002 as a model of government-industry cooperation in an era of tight government budgets. A consortium of 70 aerospace, broadcasting, telecommunications and automobile companies formed a company called Advanced Space Business Corp. to develop QZSS services, which include enhanced-accuracy GPS signals, communications and broadcasting.

The government has agreed to provide 180 billion yen over 10 years to operate the system as a public service, but did not assign that responsibility to any particular ministry, Inoue said. To make matters worse, the project's corporate partners have refused to commit funds to develop the QZSS business plan and services in the absence of a clear signal that the government intends to fund the project, he said.

The Japan Business Federation, representing corporate partners, appealed to the prime minister's office to either force a resolution of the matter or assume responsibility for the program, Inoue said.

"Next year is critical, and we are now in a critical period. Without agreement, there is a chance the QZSS will be delayed. This is supposed to be a key public-private-partnership program and it should be running smoothly. We are asking someone in government to take responsibility," Inoue said.

Kiyoshi Toriyama, executive vice president of Advanced Space Business Corp., said it was "too early to comment" on the possibility that the QZSS program will be delayed. But in a July 12 telephone interview, he confirmed that the company was unable to make a 5 billion yen QZSS investment planned for June because its "business plan is strongly and tightly connected with the government's plan."

The timing and amount of the private investment will depend on how the situation unfolds on the government side, Toriyama said.

Kimikazu Iwase, director of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Space Development and Utilization Division, said that while each of the four ministries was eager to proceed with the research and development phase, no agency or ministry has agreed to take responsibility for the operations phase. Iwase said that because the public-private QZSS partnership represents a novel approach in Japan, no ministry felt competent or able take on that role.

"Theoretically the decision can be solved by either top-down or bottom-up processes... But none of the ministries feel they have the formal authority or responsibility to choose and it's really difficult for the cabinet office to choose," Iwase said in a July 12 interview.

The education ministry believes it is a research and development body and not structured to run a public infrastructure, Iwase added.

Yasuhisa Mitani, director of the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport's Technology and Safety Division, said the ministry was participating in coordination with other ministries and the cabinet office. In a July 20 e-mail, he said while the QZSS system will provide a wide variety of services, it should be possible to integrate each under a single organization.

Hiroyuki Morishita, director the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications' Space Communications Policy Division, declined to be interviewed for this story.

"I think the QZSS story is a typical case of the complexity of Japanese decision-making," said Kazuto Suzuki, assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba's Doctoral Program on International Political Economy and an expert on space development in Japan.

Government ministries jealously guard their autonomy and there are no mechanisms to force a particular ministry to make decisions, Suzuki said. "So if the transport ministry decides not to spend any money to QZSS, it is difficult for anyone to force them to use their money on QZSS," Suzuki said in an e-mail response to questions.

One way around the impasse would be for the prime minister's cabinet office to take over the program, but Suzuki said such an outcome is unlikely.

"The issue of responsibility is a serious question [and] it's a question of life and death for the QZSS program. If there is no investment, there will be no program and no satellites. I don't think the four ministries will be able to reach an agreement in the given time. It is most likely that the program will be delayed and unless there is a strong commitment by the prime minister to go ahead this program, there is no chance that the funding decision will be made in near future," Suzuki said.