Located less than 900 kilometers from North Korea and beside Fukui Prefecture's nuclear power reactors, Japan Coast Guard's 8th Regional Headquarters in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, finds some of the nation's challenges close at hand.

The Maizuru base is one of 11 regional coast guard headquarters nationwide. Its patrol areas include the coasts of Fukui, Kyoto, Hyogo, Tottori and Shimane prefectures.

While tensions along the Sea of Japan coast are rising due to a series of North Korean missile launches, for Maizuru's fisherman, the more immediate, tangible problem is cracking down on poachers.