Japan’s maritime security

Poaching and illegal fishing causing major issues.

Preserving Order in Japan’s EEZ: Toward a New Paradigm of Maritime Security

The Japanese people were shocked by the incursion of some 200 Chinese poaching vessels into protected waters around the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands last fall, and dismayed by Japan’s limited ability to enforce the law within its own exclusive economic zone. Kōda Yōji, a retired vice admiral of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, explores the implications for Japanese maritime security and calls for new modes of cooperation between the Japan Coast Guard and the Maritime Self-Defense Force.

A Surprising Incursion by Chinese Poaching Vessels

With Japan-China ties badly frayed by tensions over the Senkaku Islands and historical controversies rooted in nationalism, a new flashpoint emerged last fall from a largely unexpected quarter. This latest threat to healthy bilateral relations was an epidemic of coral poaching by Chinese ships within Japan’s exclusive economic zone around the Ogasawara Islands, roughly 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo.

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Source: nippon.com