In a white paper released Tuesday, the Maritime Safety Agency outlined measures that would enable it to respond more quickly to large-scale oil spills.
Earlier this year, three major oil spills occurred in Japanese waters: in the Sea of Japan from the Russian tanker Nakhodka in January, in waters off Tsushima Island from the South Korean tanker Ohsung in April and in Tokyo Bay from the tanker Diamond Grace in July.
Among the new measures, the paper calls for coordination with other countries to handle oil disasters. The paper also stresses the need to upgrade the system that forecasts the spread of drifting oil through developing related computer technology and improving maritime weather forecasts. Spill-prevention tactics, cleanup efforts and spread-prevention techniques need to be improved, it says.
The paper also reports that the number of attempted illegal entries into Japan by sea stood at 491 cases in 1996, the highest since 1972. Illegal immigrants arrived from a variety of countries, and their points of entry were spread across Japan. There was also evidence of sophisticated smuggling operations.