Nobuteru Ishihara, minister of land, infrastructure and transport, presented a white paper Friday to the Cabinet that emphasizes crime prevention and counterterrorism in Japanese territorial waters and ports of entry.
The report for the first time contains an independent chapter on counterterrorism efforts. Such measures had been mentioned under a chapter on general safety, along with traffic safety and other measures to ensure public safety.
The new chapter calls for heightened security at ports, and cites cases such as an incident in 2002 when the Japan Coast Guard engaged in a gunbattle with a North Korean spy ship in the East China Sea. The spy ship sank in the incident.
Under a chapter on reviving local communities, the report calls for expanding the roles of residents and nonprofit organizations to create communities with nature-friendly landscapes.
The report seeks a new law that will be compatible with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, an international treaty expected to be revised later this year to deny entry to vessels suspected of carrying terrorists.