vessels carrying helicopters, and otherwise enhancing its domestic system for search and rescue, as well as concluding agreements for SAR cooperation and cooperating in other ways with neighboring countries.
In addition, in order to realize the objectives of the SAR Convention, in response to the requests of neighboring countries, Japan has been actively promoting developmental studies to establish maritime search and rescue readiness, implementing study, training, and joint exercises, dispatching experts in the fields of search and rescue, and providing other technical cooperation.
Hereafter it will, of course, continue to deepen its cooperation with the search and rescue organizations of countries participating in the SAR Convention. In addition, it will also encourage non-party countries to become parties to the convention, support IMO activities, and strongly promote international cooperation to establish a global search and rescue system.
a. SAR Agreements with Neighboring Countries
The SAR Convention requests that parties agree with other parties and neighboring countries on the delimitation of search and rescue regions and to have bilateral search and rescue agreements. Concluding search and rescue agreements makes it possible to clearly define respective responsibilities, promote search and rescue cooperation, and execute efficient search and rescue operations.
It is for this reason that Japan concluded the Agreement Between the Government of Japan and the Government of the United States of America on Maritime Search and Rescue (Japan-U.S. SAR Agreement) with the United States in December 1986. Through this agreement Japan has been responsible for coordinating search and rescue activities in the vast expanse of sea surrounding the 1200-mile sea zone of Japan. Furthermore, in January 1989, Japan and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) agreed on the Guidelines for Co-operation on Maritime Search and Rescue Between JMSA and USCG, to smoothly implement the Japan-U.S. SAR Agreement.
Japan and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics concluded the Agreement Between Japan and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Cooperation for Rescue of Persons in Distress at Sea (Japan-Soviet Maritime Rescue Agreement) in 1956. In addition, the "Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Russian Federation on Arrangements for Further Effective and Expeditious Cooperation in the Field of Maritime Search and Rescue" was signed in October 1993, when Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin visited Japan, to strive for closer cooperation and coordination founded on the spirit of the SAR Convention.
