Kentaro Furuya, Guest Professor (Part-time): "Challenges for Japan as a Maritime Nation: Searching for a Compass"
2023.09.27
Kentaro Furuya, Guest Professor (Part-time), Faculty of Policy ManagementAdjunct Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy StudiesProfessor, Japan Coast Guard Academy
Courses Taught: Maritime Security and Maritime Law Enforcement (Spring Semester)
Maritime Security and Maritime Law Enforcement (Fall Semester)
Starting this academic year, I am teaching the course "Maritime Security and Maritime Law Enforcement." I am from Chigasaki City, next to SFC. The elementary and junior high schools I attended were near the coast, so the sea has always been a familiar presence in my life. For my career, I joined the Japan Coast Guard, where the sea is the workplace. While it has become famous through movies like *Umizaru*, I have been involved as a rescue diver and a member of the Special Rescue Team, saving people in distress at sea, and also as a policy planner for threats in the maritime security field. I believe that being drawn to the sea is what led me to teach at SFC.
In this class, we will cover various issues related to the ocean. Japan is an island nation surrounded by the sea on all four sides, and its waters, where cold and warm currents meet, are rich in marine resources. Furthermore, as an island nation, Japan relies on maritime transport for almost 100% of its imports and exports. It can be said that Japan's economic development has always been intertwined with the sea.
However, the current reality is that a surprisingly large number of Japanese people lack awareness of the sea. According to a 2022 survey by The Nippon Foundation, only 36% of respondents felt a sense of affinity with the sea, combining those who answered "very much applies" and "somewhat applies." Furthermore, 45% of respondents said they had "not visited the sea at all" in the past year (*1). These results indicate a low level of interest in the sea among the Japanese people.
Moreover, the sea is also a medium for threats from foreign countries, including criminal activities such as illegal fishing, smuggling of drugs and firearms, and illegal immigration. Problems such as illegal operations by foreign fishing vessels and smuggling—using methods like concealing firearms and drugs in containers or ship-to-ship transfers at sea known as *sedori*—are incessant. Additionally, incidents of vessels belonging to the China Coast Guard appearing in the waters around the Senkaku Islands, which are Japanese territory, and repeatedly intruding into territorial waters have become a major security concern for Japan.
In my class at SFC, we will deepen our knowledge of maritime threats based on an understanding of the ocean's importance, examine the international laws at play, and analyze what countermeasures can be taken based on the law. We will then understand how these countermeasures realize the rule of law at sea and form the core of the policy for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.
To deepen this understanding, we will actively engage in discussions through questions and answers in class. We live in an age of high uncertainty, and the ability to accept diverse opinions while clearly communicating one's own, and to find novel and effective solutions to problems with no single answer, is becoming increasingly important. The ability to deepen mutual understanding and build relationships of trust through discussion is also required. I hope that through this class at SFC, you will firmly cultivate these skills.