Japan Govt Adopts Security-Oriented Ocean Policy

May 15, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government adopted Tuesday a revised basic ocean policy that is more focused on national security than its previous versions.

The ocean policy is reviewed every five years. The latest version highlights the guarding of territorial waters and the defense of remote islands, by referring to threats apparently from China and those from North Korea.

This is a major shift from the past two versions that laid emphasis on the development and preservation of ocean resources.

Ahead of the day's cabinet meeting, where the third policy was adopted, the government held a meeting of its ocean policy headquarters.

"Ocean policies are of vital importance for Japan, which is surrounded on all sides by the sea," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the meeting. "Their success or failure will directly affect our country's national interests."

The latest policy avoids mentioning China by name while pointing to developments occurring in the sea around Japan, such as frequent intrusions into Japanese territorial waters by foreign government ships and illegal operations by foreign fishing vessels.

The stable use of sea lanes that support Japan's trade is put at risk due to unilateral moves to change the status quo and attempts to establish such changes as accomplished facts, the basic policy says, apparently referring to China's maritime expansion in the South China Sea and other sea areas.

To cope with the situation, the policy calls for stationing Self-Defense Forces troops on Nansei southwestern remote islands and beefing up the Japan Coast Guard's activities for defending territorial waters near the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by China.

Also included in the policy is the deployment and use of more vessels of the SDF, aircraft, satellites and coastal radar systems for enhancing information gathering.

For ensuring sea lane security, the policy calls for helping coastal countries increase their capacities, including through the supply of necessary equipment and technological cooperation.

As the threats from North Korea, the ocean policy cites the firing of ballistic missiles over Japan and other provocative actions, and the transportation of materials related to weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. Jiji Press