Japan has launched a large military satellite from a base on the country's southern-most islands, just across from China, an area in which Tokyo and Beijing have clashed over the gas-rich East China Sea. The X-band satellite successfully reached orbit after blasting off on the back of a Mistubishi H-IIA rocket, a spokesman from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said yesterday. Tokyo expects to send three X-band satellites into orbit over the coming years to quadruple the nation's broadband capacity.