The budget for the NAYUTA project was formally decided in 2001, and Mitsubishi Electric was selected as contractor. This decision was no doubt influenced by the company's technical expertise and reliability as demonstrated through its development of the world's largest telescope SUBARU, in Hawaii, the 45 meter radio telescope at Nobeyama, Japan, and Intelsat communications antennas for various countries.

From the moment the decision was made, the Mitsubishi Electric technology team had only three years to complete the telescope. The battle against time thus began. The general specifications and basic design had already been largely decided when tendering the bid, so the primary challenge lay in giving shape to that plan.

The first order of business was to create the primary mirror, which is essentially the heart of the reflector telescope. After careful study of various mirror manufacturers around the world, the team decided to create the 20 centimeter-thick glass foundation of NAYUTA's primary mirror using a low expansion glass made by the German company Schott AG, which would in turn be surface-polished by Sagem in France, and treated with a reflective and protective coating at Calar Alto Observatory in Spain.

The mirror finally reached its destination at Nishiharima after a long journey of approximately 15,000 kilometers.

When it reached Japan, once the mirror was mounted, the next critical challenge was how to control the massive telescope that weighs as much as 39 tons. Mitsubishi Electric resolved this issue by adopting a friction drive system, which transmits the rotation of the motor using the frictional power generated between a roller and wheel, as opposed to meshed gears. This enabled NAYUTA to achieve superior tracking performance with an error of less than 0.5 arc-seconds, an extremely minute unit of angular measurement equaling 1/3600th of a degree.