JCG Conducts Comprehensive Drill in Tokyo Bay

May 20, 2018

Tokyo- The Japan Coast Guard conducted a large-scale comprehensive drill and a review of the fleet for the first time in six years in Tokyo Bay on Saturday, to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the coast guard system.

The JCG-hosted events had been suspended since fiscal 2013 due chiefly to the need to keep watch over the Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa following frequent intrusions by Chinese government ships. The islands also are claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

Last year, the Third Regional Coast Guard Headquarters led comprehensive training on behalf of the JCG.

On Saturday, transport minister Keiichi Ishii and Japan Coast Guard Commandant Satoshi Nakajima observed the drill aboard a patrol boat.

During the drill, JCG officers practiced spraying water to extinguish a fire and rescuing a person who fell into the sea by a helicopter under the scenario that an explosion occurred on a vessel.

According to the JCG, a total of 3,000 people, including civilians, watched the events aboard patrol vessels.

A total of 37 vessels joined the drill, in which patrol boats from the coast guard offices in such cities as Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe and Tokushima formed a squadron. Jiji Press