Ocean Policy Research Blog

This blog post was originally uploaded in
Japanese to OPRI's blog on 27 June 2019.


The Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI) has taken
up numerous research activities and achieved results
on specific marine issues such as comprehensive
coastal management, marine education, biodiversity,
utilization of Arctic shipping routes and maritime
security. While recent policy research studies have
focused on individual maritime issues, we have also
been carrying out research on the seas of East Asia,
where we are situated, and on the world’s oceans
from a comprehensive viewpoint, or one that
investigates the management of oceans as a global
public good.

Today, however, the conservation and sustainable use
of marine environments and resources are central
topics of discussion on all international platforms.
For this reason, the importance of multilateral
maritime governance has emerged, and establishing
a governance mechanism has become a pressing
issue. With this awareness, OPRI launched a
research project titled “Creation of a New
International Structure to Protect the Ocean” in
April 2019, and started a research study aimed at
producing a universal form of maritime governance.

To briefly introduce the analytical framework of this
project, the target areas for the research are the
world’s oceans in the two blue belts shown in
Figure 1, what we call “Blue Infinity Loops.”
In the sea areas of each Blue Infinity Loop, while
various marine problems such as illegal,
unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing,
extreme weather due to climate change, and
marine debris are recurring challenges, the serious
impact of these problems is felt not only in individual
sea areas but also other bodies of water.

Figure 2 shows the relationship between such
marine problems and the users of the sea area:
spatial or geographical classifications (coastal,
offshore, open sea) and legal classifications based
on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea (UNCLOS) (territorial waters, contiguous zones,
exclusive economic zones, international waters) are
on the vertical axis and the main users of sea areas
related to the allocation of those jurisdictions are
on the horizontal axis.

In the context of the maritime issues existing in
each sea area and the forms of cooperation involved
in solving them (bilateral or multilateral), we would
like to examine the governance mechanism and
methods necessary to promote sustainable marine
use and make policy recommendations by analyzing
the interrelationship (causal relationship) between
the users of sea areas and the marine problems
that exist there.

This new research project has just begun and many
difficulties are anticipated in the future. We would
appreciate your support to President Sunami and all
of our researchers as we undertake this formidable
challenge.









Xiang Gao
Research Fellow
The Ocean Policy Research Institute