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Ocean Jigsaw Puzzle Piece Series - Establishing a Sea Grant Project in Japan (2) [2019年04月24日(Wed)]

This blog post was originally uploaded in
Japanese to OPRI's blog
on September 26, 2018.

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Following my last article, here I would like to
continue to discuss whether we can establish a
similar program in Japan to the Sea Grant Programs
implemented in the United States, while introducing
the proposal created by the Japan Society of Ocean
Policy’s Research Group, “Toward the Revitalization
of Coastal Regions through the Use of an Ocean
Policy Approach” (led by Jota Kanda, professor of
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology;
the author is also a member) in June 2018.

1. Sea Grant Programs in the United States
In my last article, I introduced an outline of
programs called “Sea Grants.” Sea Grant Programs
(SGPs) have been implemented by universities for
more than fifty years in the coastal communities of
the United States. In order to see how they are
doing, I attended the Sea Grant Week held in
Portland, Oregon this month (September 2018), a
biannual meeting for scientists who are involved
with SGPs in various locations of the U.S.

I attended the opening ceremony on 18 September
and the meeting the day before. The power created
by the programs, which have been in place for more
than fifty years, was palpable. There are many
scientists specializing in ocean studies in universities
of the various states, and they are all working
together with passion to solve local ocean and
coastal issues using SGPs. A network which
connects activities in each state is functioning well.
I realized that it would not be easy to accomplish
something comparable over a short span of time.

Looking into the details of their activities, I found
that matters such as obtaining marine observation
data for fisheries, technological development of
farming and research of coastal disaster prevention
are conducted under SGPs in the U.S. In Japan,
similar activities are basically funded and
implemented at the government level. This means
that within SGPs, a system focused on functions
which do not require large budgets −such as
establishing a network to share know-how of each
area, revitalizing regions by collaborating with local
industries or promoting regional ocean education−
might also be possible in Japan.

角田1.png
Opening ceremony of Sea Grant Week
(photographed by the author)

2. Extending Sea Grants to Coastal Areas in Japan
The research group at the Japan Society of Ocean
Policy(JSOP) began a review in 2016 to see
whether we could establish a similar program in
Japan to the Sea Grant Programs implemented in
the United States. The group reviewed trends
within and outside Japan and the willingness of
Japanese universities and research institutions to
assist with such a program. They also conducted
a presentation at the JSOP’s annual conference in
December 2017. Moreover, the group formulated
the “Proposals on the Revitalization of Coastal
Areas using Experience in Marine Science” in June
2018, which aims to initiate a new science-based
industry-academia-government-private citizen
collaboration.

The most difficult part of the proposals was how
to logically explain the reason for “why we need
a system specifically for ocean and coastal areas.”
We summarized the needs and characteristics as
follows:

Diversifying needs:
Fisheries, offshore wind turbines, tourism and
leisure
Disaster prevention, environmental conservation
and restoration,
effects of global warming, countermeasures for
suspicious ships, etc.

Depopulation and aging: Deterioration of coastal
management,
remote islands becoming uninhabited, etc.

Labor required and difficulties:
Specific knowledge of ocean and coastal areas,
infrastructure such as ships and ports,
vertical division of universities and local public
organizations

The proposals pointed out that optimized
management with the collaboration and
comprehensive coordination between different
entities would be required in ocean and coastal
areas and that the participation of universities on
an organizational level could be a useful way to
solve these issues, as new needs for
countermeasures are being created.
The proposals also pointed out that there are
ideas to overcome difficulties in solving issues in
ocean and coastal areas, with examples such as
Shima City’s “New Sato-umi Creation Plan” where
academia played a central role and accumulated
science-based evidence and achieved cooperative
activities between the government and private
citizens.

Based on these, as specific matters necessary to
be implemented, the proposals suggest the
following three items:

(1) Implementation of pilot projects
Universities and research institutions should play
a central role in solving issues within ocean and
coastal areas by applying a science-based
approach. Cooperation with the relevant entities
within communities should be promoted.

(2) Establishment of liaison offices
These offices should serve as operation centers
with goals to link each regional activity, share
know-how, experience and information and
develop human resources. The offices should
strive to introduce successful cases to be
implemented nationwide.

(3) International collaboration and contribution
Japan should share its experience and support
sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific
region.

The proposals can be downloaded from the
Japan Society of Ocean Policy’s website.
Please read through them if you are interested.
With the cooperation of the members of the
research group, we created an English version
of the proposals (listed below). We handed out
the English version to the participants at the
“Sea Grant Association Meeting” held on
September 17, the day before the opening
ceremony of Sea Grant Week. We also
conducted a presentation on the content of
the proposals.

Maintenance of the economic bases and creation
of added values of ocean and coastal areas,
which were recommended in the proposals,
will contribute to the promotion of a Third Basic
Plan on Ocean Policy and the Sustainable
Developmental Goals (SDGs). We aim to
continue these activities in order to achieve a
new science-based industry-academia-
government-private citizen collaboration.


角田2.png
JSOP Proposals (Front cover of the English version)
※Please click the photo to download the
English version.

Tomohiko Tsunoda
Senior Research Fellow

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