National Ocean Policy Secretariat
https://www8.cao.go.jp/ocean/kokkyouritou/kokkyouritou.html
National Ocean Policy Secretariat is in charge of the tasks covering basic policies to promote measures with regard to the oceans comprehensively and systematically(e.g., the preservation of remote border islands including Oki-no-Tori Shima and Minami-Tori Shima).
Secretariat of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/gaiyo/sip/
Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program(SIP)/Development of Innovative Technologies for Exploration of Deep-sea Resources
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/sip2/j/
The deep seafloor around Japan is known to contain a large amount of mineral resources.
Recent studies have identified the existence of marine mineral resources, including rare-earth elements that are essential to economic and social development.
They have been found at the sea bottom approximately 2.000 m to 6.000 m below the sea surface, which accounts for two-thirds of the seabed of Japan’s exclusive economic zone(EEZ). The program to be pursued through the collaboration of nine ministries aims to take a step-by-step approach to establish and verify innovative technologies for exploration of deep-sea resources,including mineral resources, such as rare earth deposits existing in the deep seafloor. The objectives are to be a global pioneer,to promote social implementation of the technologies, such as technology transfer to private corporations, and to pave the way toward the future establishment of a business model.
Keihin River Office, Kanto Regional Development Bureau
https://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/keihin/keihin_index005.html
Located at the southernmost edge of Japan, the Okinotorishima Island is an extremely important island for preservation of the national land as it serves as the basis for the country's exclusive economic zones. In order to ensure its conservation, the state has been directly maintaining and controlling its shores entirely at its expenses since 1999. In 2010, the Act on the Development of Base Facilities and Preservation of the Low-Tide Line for the Promotion of Use and Conservation of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf was brought into force, and in 2011, low-tide lines preservation areas were established under the Act, making control of the Okinotorishima Island even more important.
Office of Designated Remote Island Ports, Kanto Regional Development Bureau
https://www.pa.ktr.mlit.go.jp/ritou/
The Act on the Development of Base Facilities and Preservation of the Low-Tide Line for the Promotion of Use and Conservation of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf came into force in 2010. Base facilities (designated remote islands port facilities) that enable activities like mooring, berthing, loading, and unloading ships are developed and managed in accordance with this Act and other relevant laws. The purpose is to ensure that activities related to oceanographic research, development and utilization of marine resources, and so on around the Minamitorishima and Okinotorishima Islands are conducted safety and stably even out at sea far away from the mainland.
Geospatial Information Authority of Japan
https://www.gsi.go.jp/ENGLISH/index.html
About GNSS Continuously Operating Reference Station (GNSS CORS)
https://www.gsi.go.jp/ENGLISH/page_e30030.html
As one of its extraordinary organizations of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) promotes geospatial information use through measures regarding land surveying and mapping. It contributes to the improvement of citizens’ life and the sound progress of the national economy.
GNSS CORSs managed and operated by the Geodetic Observation Center are national control points that receive radio signals from positioning satellites (GNSS: Global Navigation Satellite System) such as GPS and QZSS satellites. They are in approximately 1,300 locations throughout Japan. In 2002, Minamitorishima Island, the easternmost island in Japan, got a GNSS CORS, and Okinotorishima Island, the southernmost island in Japan, got it in 2005.
GNSS CORSs provide location information following national coordinates. In addition, they capture crustal deformation in real-time and provide helpful information for countermeasures against natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/env/ghg_obs/en/station/station_minamitorishima.html
The Japan Meteorological Agency conducts surface observations for air temperature, precipitation, and others as well as upper-air observations at Minamitorishima Meteorological Observation Station. The station also observes far-field tsunamis and sends the observational data to the Agency via satellites for the use of disaster prevention information such as tsunami warnings and advisories. Furthermore, the station is registered as one of the 31 Global Stations (as of August 2022) under the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and several elements of the atmospheric environment such as mixing ratios of greenhouse gases are observed there.
https://www.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/03kanku/
The 3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters is responsible for a wide area of the northwest Pacific Ocean that extends from the coastal waters of Ibaraki and Shizuoka Prefectures to the Okinotorishima and Minamitorishima Islands at the southernmost and easternmost edges of Japan.
The headquarters works 24/7 to handle an extremely extensive range of duties within the waters under its jurisdiction. The duties include: crackdown on illegal operation by foreign fishing boats in Japan's territorial sea and exclusive economic zones (EEZs); response to investigation activities by foreign oceanographic research vessels without prior consent (*); crackdown on large-scale smuggling of illegal drugs from overseas; response to natural disasters in the area including remote islands and inland areas; sea rescue; emergency patient transport from ships and remote islands; ensuring safe marine traffic in the Tokyo Bay, which is a vital passage to the country's economy; safety measures for marine leisure; oceanographic research activities; and provision of marine information.
*: When a foreign vessel conducts research activities in Japan's exclusive economic zone, etc., the vessel must obtain Japan's consent based on the UNCLOS. In recent years, however, there have been many research activities conducted by foreign oceanographic research vessels that aren't consented by Japan or differ from the consented details (unusual behavior) in the waters around Japan. The Japan Coast Guard conducts warning and surveillance by patrol vessels and/or aircraft, and when it finds any unusual behavior, it acts appropriately in cooperation with related ministries and agencies, e.g., confirming the status and purpose of the behavior and requesting the vessel in question to stop its activities.
https://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/gyoko_gyozyo/g_thema/sub35.htm
Coral reefs are places where wide varieties of marine life inhabit and nurture a rich fishing ground. They play a major role in the growth of fishery resources. However, if the coral reefs decline in large scales due to the high water temperatures in recent years, they will need a long time to recover through seeding and resilience alone. The impact will be particularly evident in sea areas where coral cover (a proportion of seafloor area covered by live corals) is low and a natural larval supply from surrounding areas cannot be expected like at the Okinotorishima Island. For that reason, the Agency is trying to effectively and efficiently preserve and restore coral that have declined in large scales in order to preserve the fishing ground environment and as part of efforts to preserve the Okinotorishima Island. To that end, it's developing and testing technologies to preserve and restore wide stretches of coral reefs with the aim of establishing planning and implementation methods for project rollouts as soon as possible.
http://www.env.go.jp/earth/earth/ondanka/nergy-taisakutokubetsu-kaikeir04/gsyk04-27-2.pdf
As the globe becomes warmer and warmer, countries around the world are promoting the use of renewable energy to build a decarbonized society. In particular, it's effective to use renewable energy to cover the energy demand in isolated environments like remote islands, so that necessary facilities can be operated even in a catastrophic typhoon or other event. In cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Environment is promoting a demonstration project aimed at building a distributed energy system on the Minamitorishima Island and other places by making full use of technologies for energy recycling, saving, storing, etc. The distributed energy system will contribute to making renewable energy sources mainstream and more resilient.
https://www.ifarc.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/about/index.html
The waters around the Okinotorishima Island are home to deposits of valuable marine resources, and utilizing these resources is an important issue for the metropolitan government. Meanwhile, fishery resources and catch volumes in the area from the Izu Islands to the Ogasawara Islands have been declining recently. This has led to the need to develop new fishing grounds around the Okinotorishima Island. For this reason, the metropolitan government is promoting the development and monitoring of fishing grounds and resource management around the island.
https://www.oa.u-tokyo.ac.jp/program/okinotorishima.html
The Okinotorishima Island and other atoll islands that don't get submerged even at high tide are formed when coral skeletons pile up and form coral reefs, upon which coral gravel and foraminifera shells (star sand) wash up and pile up even further. The rising sea level caused by global warming is a common challenge they share with atoll nations. The University of Tokyo is conducting cross-organizational marine education and research activities at the Ocean Alliance Collaborative Research Organization, which is led by seven graduate schools, five research institutes, and one research center. The Okinotorishima and Small Island Countries Program is developing ecological engineering maintenance technologies to help preserve the atoll islands by supporting the islands' natural resilience. At the same time, it's also considering ways to promote technology transfer through international support to small atoll island countries (Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Maldives, etc.) that are at risk of being submerged.
