to attend a meeting of experts in the prevention of smuggling.
Furthermore, to strengthen its measures to prevent mass illegal immigration, Japan is working to build cooperative relationships between law enforcement organizations. It makes use of opportunities, such as meetings with the consular authorities of the People's Republic of China and other countries concerned, to ask them to devise effective preventive measures.
Regarding measures against suspicious ships in the East China Sea, Japan and the People's Republic of China are cooperating by exchanging information, etc., in accordance with the bilateral liaison system established at the "Japan-China Meetings of Authorities Related to Safe Navigation in the East China Sea," which were held in Peking and Tokyo in 1993. In this way, Japan is working to ensure the safety of ships passing through the East China Sea.
Of note, as of July 31, 1996, Japan reported information related to 45 vessels involved in confirmed cases of transfer of cargo, such as cigarettes, at sea, to the Chinese authorities.
2. Hydrographic Operations
(1) International Cooperation to Understand the State of the Marine Environment
In response to "Agenda 21," the action policies for countries decided at the "United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (Earth Summit)" in June 1992, in February 1993, UNESCO's IOC proposed that the Global Oceanographic Observation System (GOOS) be built with the goal of inauguration in the year 2007, of a comprehensive system to carry out and provide evaluations of climatic fluctuations and long-term meteorological forecasts, through cooperation with the World Meteorological Organizations (WMO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), and other relevant organizations. At present, the effort to establish GOOS is being studied worldwide. JMSA is working to expand and improve its existing observation operations and intends to actively respond to this call by IOC.
In addition, in order to contribute to the implementation of NOWPAP, which UNEP is promoting for the purpose of protecting the environment of relatively closed off bodies of water, in December 1995, JMSA and the Ministry of Transport jointly organized the "International Workshop on Monitoring and Data Management for Marine Environment." This workshop covered matters such as marine pollution studies, and Japan invited experts from the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Russia, coastal countries of the Sea of Japan and the Yellow sea, which are among the NOWPAP targeted bodies of water. When NOWPAP is implemented hereafter, JMSA intends to respond actively by making use of the technology and knowledge accumulated to establish monitoring plans and create data bases.
