Japan to shift ocean policy focus to security

April 7, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government, at a meeting with ruling parties Friday, proposed shifting a basic ocean policy focus from resources to security through a review in the policy it makes every five years.

According to a draft of the new policy plan shown to task forces of the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, the government will give the top policy priority to coastal security and remote island defense.

As reasons for the major priority shift from the current maritime resources development and management, the draft cites Chinese government ships' repeated intrusions into Japanese waters, Chinese warships' sailing in the waters and North Korea's firing of missiles into Japan's exclusive economic zone.

"Our nation's maritime interests are exposed to serious threats and risks more than ever before," the draft notes. The situation will get worse unless necessary measures are taken, it points out.

The government hopes that the proposed new five-year ocean policy will be adopted at a cabinet meeting on April 27, so it can be incorporated into the country's basic defense program, scheduled to be reviewed at the end of this year.

The draft underscores the importance of establishing a maritime domain awareness system for sharing information collected by government agencies of Japan and other countries to use for monitoring unidentified vessels and handling natural disasters.

Specifically, it calls for beefing up radars set up on Self-Defense Forces aircraft and along coasts and utilizing advanced satellites of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

Referring extensively to China's maritime expansion, the draft puts "unilateral moves to change the status quo and attempts to establish such changes as accomplished facts" in sea lanes in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea as threats to Japan.

To block such moves, Japan will get involved in port development and management in countries along the shipping lanes and help them build maritime security capabilities, the draft says.

In view of China's stepped-up resources development in the Arctic, the government has upgraded "Artic policy promotion" to one of major goals in the new plan.

To enhance the plan's effectiveness, the 86-page draft makes clear each government agency's responsibility and elaborates measures to be taken.

The government will next create a road map for the plan so it can check progress in implementing specific programs in each fiscal year. Jiji Press