JAPAN'S MARITIME SECURITY STRATEGY

Event details
Speaker : Assoc Prof Yoichiro Sato
               Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
Date      : Thursday, 26 July 2007
Time      : 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue    : AS4/03-28 (JS Meeting Room)

Abstract

For an archipelagic nation like Japan, maritime security occupies a critical part of its overall security strategy. Historically, Japan's broader maritime security consideration included safe passage through key choke points of its commercial fleet and maintaining unrestricted access to open water fishery resources. Japan's shift from coal to oil as its primary energy source highlighted the significance of the Malacca Straits. However, diversification of energy sources into nuclear and emerging competitions over seabed mining have provided Japan a broader set of maritime energy security challenges. Open sea fishery issues, including tunas and whales, continue to be the arena of international economic, legal, and political competitions, as well as the breeding ground for development of maritime sciences, environmental norms, and cooperative management policies.

The post-Cold War security environment has not only allowed Japan to view beyond its historical focus on the Soviet Navy, but also challenged the country with even a broader range of new issues. Threats to Japan's maritime interests from various non-state actors, such as illegal smuggling of drugs, guns and humans, piracy and illegal fishing called for comprehensive and coordinated responses from multiple ministries and agencies. To make this challenge even more difficult, complex interplay of state and non-state threats against Japan's maritime security interests, such as North Korea's officially sanctioned drug trade, invites broader diplomatic and military considerations into what have been considered “enforcement” questions.

Japan has set up a new ministry of Maritime Policies, but only appointed the current minister of Land and Transportation concurrently to the new ministry's head. As calls for a comprehensive maritime strategy rises, Japan's bureaucracy faces a major challenge of overcoming inter-ministerial rivalries for the sake of effective policy coordination. This talk will first offer a menu of maritime security issues Japan is concerned about. Then, two issues (piracy in the Malacca Straits and illegal tuna fishing) will be presented in more details to assess the extent of ministerial coordination.

About the speaker

Dr. Yoichiro Sato is an Associate Professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and an expert in Japanese foreign policy. He has also taught at the Auckland University in New Zealand, University of Hawaii and Kansai Gaidai Hawaii College. Dr. Sato received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawaii, M.A. in international studies from the University of South Carolina, and B.A. in law from Keio University (Tokyo). Dr. Sato's most recently published book is Japan in A Dynamic Asia (co-edited with Satu Limaye, Lexington Books, 2006).   Two more co-edited books have been contracted with Palgrave and Routledge and are expected to be out in 2008. He is active in International Studies Association and Asian Studies meetings and also actively speaks to the general public and governmental audiences.