The Defense Agency plans to set up a coast guard unit separate from the Maritime Safety Agency that would use high-speed patrol boats, according to papers submitted to a Liberal Democratic Party meeting Friday.
The plan appears to be a reaction to an incident in March in which two suspicious fishing trawlers spotted in Japanese waters eluded the Maritime Self-Defense Force's chase vessels as they fled to North Korea.
Details of the new unit are included in the agency's draft budget request for fiscal 2000. The request totals 4.99 trillion yen, up 1.6 percent from the current fiscal year. Of the total, 31 billion yen is earmarked for countermeasures against rogue vessels.