As Japan celebrates Marine Day 2024, it must also step up responses to foreign countries lawlessly intruding on Japanese seas to expand their maritime claims. Published on By Japan is a major nation. In fact, it is the sixth largest maritime nation in the world.
It comprises 14,000 islands of various sizes. Meanwhile, the ocean area it controls, including its territorial waters and (EEZ), covers approximately 4.47 million square kilometers of seas.
That is more than 11 times Japan's land area. We also have a duty to future generations to pass on the bountiful resources and beautiful nature the sea provides us. Its rich resources and beautiful nature are precious assets bestowed on us.
We celebrated this bounty on , Monday, July 15. It was a day set aside for the Japanese people to express gratitude for these blessings and to pray for greater prosperity for Japan as a maritime nation. was established by law as a public holiday in 1995.
It is celebrated every third Monday of July. Before that, it was also commemorated as Marine Memorial Day, although not as an official holiday. Marine Memorial Day was established to mark the return of to the Port of Yokohama on July 20, 1876.
That was the end of his voyage on the steamship , which also took him to Tohoku and Hokkaido. Nonetheless, the security of Japan's vast expanse of seas has come under continuous threat in recent years. For example, in June, a vessel installed a in the Shikoku Basin, an area of the continental shelf on the .
