of foreign fishing ships, foreign oceanographic survey vessels, and other such vessels the safety of maritime traffic, and other relevant matters. This even includes information on past maritime disasters.
III. Education and Training System
1. Education and Training at the Maritime Safety Academy
The Maritime Safety Academy was established for the JMSA's executive officers, to teach them necessary skills and knowledge and train their minds and bodies. The courses of study offered are Regular Course, Postgraduate Course, Officer Candidate Course, and Training Course.
Since the Regular Course educates personnel who are destined to become executive officers, it accepts graduates of senior high schools or enactments of higher learning. During the first two years, cadets receive mainly a general education. From the second semester of the second year, they are divided into three courses, the Course I (Navigation), Course 2 (Engineering), and Course 3 (Communications), and taught the advanced knowledge and sophisticated skills required to carry out maritime safety operations and operate ships. Academy graduates are granted the same qualifications to enter graduate schools as the graduates of regular four-year colleges. In addition, upon successfully passing the requisite examination by an academic degree conferring enactment, students are granted bachelor's degrees (in maritime safety).
The Postgraduate Course teaches graduates of the Regular Course the specialized knowledge and skills required to carry out maritime safety operations. In addition, the course implements practical training in sailing the open seas by circumnavigating the globe, calling on ports in North America, the United Kingdom, and other countries along the way. This training mission is approximately three months long and is carried out using the training patrol vessel "KOJIMA."
The Officer Candidate course teaches select persons, from among Agency personnel already engaged in duty, the knowledge and skills junior executive officers require to carry out maritime safety operations and operate ships.
The Training Course is devised to respond appropriately to the increasing sophistication and specialization of maritime safety operations. Consequently, it teaches personnel already engaged in duty the specialized knowledge and skills required to carry out maritime safety operations. To this end, it offers study and training in diving technology, language courses to study Russian, Chinese, and Korean, and other study and training programs.
