TRICOM-1 was built based on the 'Hodoyoshi Reliability Engineering' demonstrated by the Hodoyoshi 3 and 4 microsatellites. It was built by the University of Tokyo Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory, with funding allocated from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The store and forward mission involved the satellite storing weak signal data from terrestrial terminals, and forwarding the data when the satellite flies above ground stations. TRICOM-1 will also conduct Earth observation using its main camera and five sub cameras. The name of the spacecraft is partially based on the Japanese word Torikomu, which means 'to take in', due to the store and forward nature of the mission.