Timing capabilities of the current and future X‐ray astronomy satellites in Japan are reviewed. Stresses are put on the two programs, Astro‐E2 and NeXT, and some other programs are also mentioned. Astro‐E2 is developed under the Japan‐US collaboration, and is scheduled to be launched in February, 2005. Astro‐E2 is basically a spectroscopic mission, and its timing capability of the focal‐plane detectors is rather limited. However, the non‐imaging, hard X‐ray detector can provide a good time resolution. Astro‐E2 will be followed by the NeXT satellite, which we plan to launch around 2010. NeXT is characterized by the direct imaging capability up to ∼80 keV. Its timing capability is also limited, but may be good for some kind of timing observations. © 2004 American Institute of Physics