No.77
| Special Edition Japan as a Maritime Nation and the World |
October 20, 2003 |
| ● | Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and Japan as a Maritime Nation Masahiro Akiyama Chairman, Ship & Ocean Foundation |
| ● | Safety of Navigation in the Malacca and Singapore Straits Tadashi Shimura Nippon Maritime Center |
| ● | Japan Coast Guard and an Armed Conflict Law Akira Mayama Professor of International Relations, National Defense Academy |
Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and Japan as a Maritime Nation
Masahiro AkiyamaChairman, Ship & Ocean Foundation
It is well known that Japan's rapid post-war economic recovery was based on free trade and the development of its coastal industrial zones. What is less well known is that this economic strategy was the direct result of then Prime Minister Yoshida's conviction that Japan should go forward as a maritime nation. The time is past however, when we can view the ocean only from the perspective of its economic advantages. As the conditions of our current century demand a reexamination of man's relationship with the ocean, Japan should make ocean initiatives a national priority and exert international leadership in searching for solutions to ocean problems.
Safety of Navigation in the Malacca and Singapore Straits
Tadashi ShimuraNippon Maritime Center
The Malacca and Singapore Straits is navigated by seventy-five thousand ships per year and is the import route for ninety percent of Japan's oil. At present, the three coastal countries have proposed and are seeking cooperation on six projects as part of a navigation safety initiative, but these are largely counter-measures for the prevention of collisions and groundings. What are most needed now are counter-measures to stem the growing threat of terrorism in the Straits.
Japan Coast Guard and an Armed Conflict Law
Akira MayamaProfessor of International Relations, National Defense Academy
Although the Coast Guard is generally considered a policing body, there is a real possibility of its having to undertake aggressive action in an armed conflict. Given the Coast Guard's extensive manpower resources and increasingly sophisticated armament, there is a need to regulate its activities with an Armed Conflict Law.