When Japan makes its case for the rule of law and tries to ensure maritime security, the spotlight often falls on its Self-Defense Forces, an "armed organization" whose use of force is strictly limited under the pacifist Constitution.
But no less important is the Japan Coast Guard, the protector of maritime order, amid increasing calls for Japan to boost its defenses as the security environment in the region evolves.
The Coast Guard conducts day-to-day patrol activities not just around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea — uninhabited islets at the heart of tensions with China — but the whole of the Japanese archipelago.