Font size: 
"Next year will be a new start for Japan as a maritime nation," said parliamentarian Seiji Maehara, one of the promoters of ocean policies at a recent seminar commemorating the one-year anniversary of the enactment of Japan’s Basic Act on Ocean Policy, aimed at protecting and utilizing ocean resources.
Since the Basic Act was adopted, the Japanese government has set up an ocean policy office headed by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. And newly announced economic and financial policies included funds budgeted to carry out the ocean-related policies.
Maehara, former head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, stressed the importance of Japan’s ocean development in light of China's recent extensive maritime research. He was speaking to an audience of politicians, academics and journalists at a Tokyo University seminar last week.
Maehara said that Chinese ships, including military vessels and submarines, legitimately or illegally, "have thoroughly studied the depth, temperatures and tidal streams of all the seas and channels around Japan, and in every season." He warned that the research had serious military implications.
Long-term, he suggested, "There is a danger that China and Taiwan would form an anti-Japan alliance over their common territorial claim over the Senkaku Islands.” The islands are known as the Diaoyutai in Chinese. Maehara said that new Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou had written a thesis on Taiwan's justification for regaining the disputed islands while studying at Harvard University in the United States.
Japan is also involved in other territorial disputes – with South Korea over Takeshima island, known as Dokdo in Korean, and with Russia over the Kuril Islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories.
National concerns over maritime security and safety allowed the Basic Act to pass almost unanimously in the Diet last year. There are also concerns over potential assets, including oil and gas, around the country’s 6,847 islands and islets.
Though Japan's land area is only about 380,000 square kilometers, its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone as recognized by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea encompass about 4,470,000 square kilometers, giving it the world’s sixth largest maritime area.
In fact Japan was one of the most successful ocean-going nations before World War II; so much so that its interests eventually clashed militarily with major sea powers like Great Britain and the United States. But post-war Japan has stuck to self-imposed restraints on its maritime ventures.
However, the value of territorial waters has increased of late as a vital source of seafood and potential source of energy. As oil prices have risen unabated, several energy options such as methane hydrate, a solid water form containing methane within its crystal structure, have become more economically feasible. Even biofuel from marine algae is being developed under a five-year plan supported by Japan's Fisheries Agency.
As for food resources, the Japanese diet is famous for seafood, particularly sushi and sashimi. But concern about the maritime environment is growing as large areas of algae are being lost.
According to the semi-official NHK TV, about one-third of the nation’s algae fields are now barren, meaning the loss of vital fish breeding and nurturing zones. A report broadcast by the station said the sea temperature is more than one degree Celsius higher than 70 years ago.
But Japan’s fishing industry is facing a more immediate crisis. On July 15, virtually all the country’s fishing vessels will refuse to sail in a one-day show of force as fisherfolk seek compensation for the high oil prices that make their business increasingly less viable.
Already fishers of cuttlefish have suspended their fishing for several days, as their light-intensive method requires extra fuel. Sushi bars and fish restaurants are feeling the shortage of one of Japan’s favorite delicacies.
The maritime regime may have to tackle the economy of the fishing industry, as many fisherfolk are in danger of being forced out of their trade.
Some of them watched with awe the latest feat of well-known solo sailor Kenichi Horie, 69, who arrived at the Japanese port of Wakayama on July 4, after sailing 110 days on the world's first exclusively wave-powered boat. Aboard the three-ton, 9.5-meter vessel, Horie sailed 7,800 kilometers from Hawaii. The boat is thrust forward by fins at the front of the craft that move up and down in response to the movement of the waves.
The elderly sailor, who has performed many solo sailing feats since his first trip from Japan to San Francisco at the age of 23, is the perfect symbol of Japan’s determination to master the waves.
