A History Of Japans Coast Guard And Its Evolving Role In Maritime Security

Recently, Japan's security environment has experienced rapid changes. One especially significant recent development is China's increasing reliance on its coast guard and fishing vessels to assert its contested sovereignty claims in the East and South China Seas. In particular, China's use of non-military forces to make territorial claims on the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands in Chinese), which Japan ministers, presents a major deterrence challenge for Japan and its traditional security system, such as the Japan Self-defense Force and the U.S.-Japan security alliance system. One key aspect of Tokyo's response to this challenge has been an increased role for Japan's non-military coast guard in territorial security. he increasingly important role of Japan Coast Guard (JCG) in Japan's national security is the latest development in a more than seventy-year story of incremental evolution-one which has not received much attention in the existing literature. This thesis aims to help fill that gap. After a historical review of the JCG's predecessor institutions throughout the post-WWII period, the thesis engages the following contemporary questions: How has the JCG's role evolved in the Post-Cold War period, including as a leader of regional security cooperation in Southeast Asia? Also, how and why Japan's political leaders placed the JCG on the front lines of non-military security threats in the 21st century? During the U.S. Occupation (1945-1952), the Maritime Safety Agency (MSA), the precursor to the JCG, was established to fill Japan's maritime security vacuum. After the occupation, it was separated from Japan's remilitarization process and served as a law enforcement agency. During the Cold War, Japan's rapid economic growth resulted in a surge of maritime traffic volume and required the MSA to prepare measures for environment protection and a maritime traffic management system. When the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea became effective in 1982, the expansion of Japan's maritime sphere largely reinforced the international cooperation system and long-distance operation capability of the MSA. With the security environment in East Asia rapidly changing since the end of the Cold War, the MSA (renamed as Japan Coast Guard (JCG) in 2000) has come to play an increasingly central role in Japan's rapidly evolving national security strategy. First, suspicious ship incidents from North Korea in 1999 and 2001 provided concrete examples of non-traditional/non-military threats to Japan's territorial security. Later, and especially since 2010, China's 'gray-zone strategy,' by which it uses its coast guard and fishing vessels to assert controversial sovereignty claims, has presented major new challenges for Japan's ability to maintain deterrence while minimizing escalation risks. In response, Japan has invested significantly in strengthening the JCG, while limiting direct cooperation with the Japan Self-defense Force. Specifically, the Japanese government has invested heavily in strengthening JCG's equipment and capability by increasing its budget and amending the Japan Coast Guard law. Second, as non-traditional security threats and concerns about China's policies in the South China Sea have grown, Japan's leaders have also emphasized multilateral cooperation with the law-enforcement agencies of various Southeast Asian countries to maintain stability.

Japan, the geopolitical lynchpin in the East Asian region, has developed a unique maritime security policy and interpretation of the law of the sea. Japanese Maritime Security and the Law of the Sea examines Japan’s domestic laws and its approach to international law.

Since the late 1990s, the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) has countered a myriad of 'outlaw' threats at sea including piracy, terrorism, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the threat posed by 'rogue states'. Japan's innovative strategy has transformed maritime security governance in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Since its original printing in 2002, Pub 1 has served as the Coast Guard's capstone doctrinal publication. It defines its principles and culture. It describes its history, missions, purpose, and ethos. It communicates who and what the Coast Guard is and how it accomplishes its missions. This May 2009 update includes data on roles and missions, forces, historic evolution, and values.

Japan is quintessentially by geography a maritime country. Maritime surveillance capabilities – underwater, shore-based and airborne – are critical to its national defence posture. This book describes and assesses these capabilities, with particular respect to the underwater segment, about which there is little strategic analysis in publicly available literature. Since the end of the Cold War, Chinese oceanographic and navy vessels have intruded into Japanese waters with increasing frequency, not counting their activities in disputed waters such as around the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands and Okinotorishima where China and Japan have overlapping territorial claims. These intrusions have increasingly involved warships, including submarines, sometimes acting quite aggressively. Japan maintains an extraordinary network of undersea hydrophone arrays, connected to shore-stations which are typically equipped with electronic intelligence (ELINT) systems, for monitoring, identifying and tracking submarine and surface traffic in its internal straits and surrounding seas. Some parts of this network are operated jointly with, and are of crucial importance to, the US Navy. Japan’s superlative submarine detection capabilities would be of decisive advantage in any submarine engagement. But the relevant facilities are relatively vulnerable, which makes them very lucrative targets in any conflict. This introduces compelling escalatory dynamics, including the involvement of US forces and possible employment of nuclear options.

This book explores various aspects of the roles and responsibilities of coast guards, which are increasingly becoming significant today, and sheds light on their authority and limitations in the course of maritime law enforcement. It is unique in its unraveling of all facets of coast guards, focusing on their law enforcement authority and limitations from a practical perspective. It details the principles and procedures that coast guard officers are required to follow in the course of international law at sea by examining treaties, conventions, international rulings, and theories. The text employs a comparative study of national coast guards and a review of cases concerning international maritime law enforcement. It provides practical insights into coast guards and their law enforcement, based on the author’s career experience and service as a Commissioner General in the Korea Coast Guard. As such, this book will serve as a good reference in practice and contribute to the formulation of guidelines and criteria of maritime law enforcement of coast guards.

At home and overseas, the United States Coast Guard served a variety of vital functions in World War II, providing service that has been too little recognized in histories of the war. Teaming up with other international forces, the Coast Guard provided crewmembers for Navy and Army vessels as well as its own, carried troops, food, and military supplies overseas, and landed Marine and Army units on distant and dangerous shores. This thorough history details those and other important missions, which included combat engagement with submarines and kamikaze planes, and typhoons. On the home front, port security missions involving search and rescue, fire fighting, explosives, espionage and sabotage presented their own unique dangers and challenges.

Drawing upon case study material and primary research, including interviews with officials and security analysts, the book presents a chronological analysis of Japan's sea lane security.

Since a 2010 incident of Chinese fishing vessels colliding into the Japan Coast Guard’s ships, China’s activities around the Senkaku Islands and the broader East China Sea only grew more aggressive and more frequent. Facing increasing pressure from China in the East China Sea, Japan welcomes greater European engagement in the Indo-Pacific.In her paper, Yuki Tatsumi argues that Japan primarily considers Europe a diplomatic and strategic partner to help maintain a value-based liberal international order in the Indo-Pacific region.Japan hopes that greater activity in the region by European countries would raise the stakes for China if it continues its aggressive behavior in the region, thereby deterring Beijing in non-confrontational ways.