Japan Coast Guard - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The , formerly the Maritime Safety Agency, is the Japanese coast guard

Coast guard

A coast guard or coastguard is a national organization responsible for various services at sea. However the term implies widely different responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to being a volunteer organization tasked with...

. Comprising about 12,000 personnel, it is under the oversight of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and is responsible for the protection the coast-lines of Japan. It was founded in 1948.

Overview

The duty of the JCG is to ensure security and safety at sea.This provided through the following services:

Maritime patrol
Water police
Water police, also called harbour patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables or river police, are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organisation, who patrol in water craft...

– patrols Japan's territorial seas and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of (12–200 nautical miles out from the shore which is approximately 4,470,000 km2.
- Countermeasures against Smuggling and Illegal Immigration
- Countermeasures against Piracy
  Piracy
  Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
  
  (Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia-ReCAAP)
- Counter Terrorism
- Security against Maritime Conflict – includes the Special Guard Team
- Surveillance of Illegal Operations by Foreign Fishing Vessels
- Countermeasures against Suspicious Vessels and/or Spy Ships
- Dealing with Unlawful Acts by Foreign Oceanographic Research Vessels
- Patrolling and Guarding the Waters near the Senkaku Islands, Takeshima, and the Northern Territories
Search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
Hydrographic and oceanographic surveying
Maritime traffic management

National Headquarters

The Japan Coast Guard is led by Commandant Hiroyasu Suzuki and two Vice Commandants. Lower ranking officers include the director general, directors and inspector generals.

Organization (as of April 1, 2009)

Commandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...
- Vice Commandant
- Vice Commandant for Operations
Administrative Inspector General
Inspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
Administration Department
Coast Guard Research Center
Equipment and Technology Department
Guard and Rescue Department
Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department
Maritime Traffic Department
Coast Guard Academy (Kure
Kure
Kure can refer to:*KURE, a radio station in Ames, Iowa*Kure Software Koubou, Japanese video game development company*Kure, Hiroshima , a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan**Kure Line, a rail line in the city...

)
Coast Guard School (Maizuru)
Moji Branch school (Kitakyushu)
Miyagi Branch school(Iwanuma)

The Japan Coast Guard Academy

Japan Coast Guard Academy

The is a university-level academy established within the Japan Coast Guard for the purpose of training students to become officers. It is located in Kure, Hiroshima prefecture.Students have the status of public employees...

is a 4-year-training institution, located in Kure

Kure, Hiroshima

is a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.As of October 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 240,820 and a population density of 681 persons per km². The total area is 353.74 km².- History :...

, Hiroshima prefecture

Hiroshima Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Hiroshima.- History :The area around Hiroshima was formerly divided into Bingo Province and Aki Province. This location has been a center of trade and culture since the beginning of Japan's recorded...

, established within the Coast Guard for the purpose of training students to become officers. Graduates are given a bachelor's degree upon graduation. About 40 cadets graduate from the academy each year.

The JCG maintains two special forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

units:

the and
the .

History

Founded in 1948 as the Maritime Safety Agency of Japan, its English name was changed to Japan Coast Guard in April 2000. In 1950, the Maritime Safety Agency sent minesweepers to the Korean Peninsula under the United Nations flag during the Korea War.

On December 22, 2001, JCG ships intercepted a Chinese-flagged vessel believed to be North Korean in origin, in the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone

Exclusive Economic Zone

Under the law of the sea, an exclusive economic zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including production of energy from water and wind. It stretches from the seaward edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical...

between Kyushu and China. When the vessel failed to respond, she was fired upon by the JCG and an exchange of gunfire resulted. The unidentified vessel sank in the Chinese EEZ with all hands. The ship, later salvaged by the JCG, was found to be carrying weapons and spy equipment. The wreck and its contents were put on display at the Japanese Coast Guard Museum at Yokohama.

Operational regions

Headquartered in Tokyo, the JCG has divided the nation into eleven regions to facilitate its
coast guard operations. Each region maintains a Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, under which
there are various Coast Guard Offices, Coast Guard Stations, Air Stations, Hydrographic
Observatory, and Traffic Advisory Service Centers.

1st Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Otaru, Hokkaidō
Otaru, Hokkaido
is a city and port in Shiribeshi, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces the Ishikari Bay, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical buildings, Otaru is a popular tourist destination...

(including southern Kuril islands
Kuril Islands dispute
The Kuril Islands dispute , also known as the , is a dispute between Japan and Russia over sovereignty over the South Kuril Islands. The disputed islands, which were occupied by Soviet forces during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation at the end of World War II, are under Russian...

)
2nd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Shiogama, Miyagi
Shiogama, Miyagi
is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.As of 2005, the city has an estimated population of 59,429 and a population density of 3,329 persons per km², making it the most densely populated conurbation in Tōhoku...
3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
4th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Nagoya
5th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
6th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
7th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Kitakyūshū
8th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Maizuru, Kyoto
Maizuru, Kyoto
is a city located in Kyōto, Japan, on an inlet of the Sea of Japan.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 89,626 and the density of 264 persons per km². The total area is .The city was founded on May 27, 1943....
9th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Niigata, Niigata
Niigata, Niigata
is the capital and the most populous city of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. It lies on the northwest coast of Honshu, the largest island of Japan, and faces the Sea of Japan and Sado Island....
10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Kagoshima
11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters: Naha, Okinawa
Naha, Okinawa
is the capital city of the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa.Naha is a coastal city located on the East China Sea coast of the southern part of Okinawa Island, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands...

(including Senkaku Islands
Senkaku Islands
The , also known as the Diaoyu Islands or Diaoyutai Islands or the Pinnacle Islands, are a group of disputed uninhabited islands in the East China Sea...

)

Vessels

The JCG operates 455 watercraft, these include the following:

Patrol Vessels: 121
Patrol craft: 234
Special guard and rescue craft: 63
Hydrographic survey vessels: 13
Aids to navigation evaluation vessels: 1
Buoy tenders: 2
Aids to navigation tenders: 18
Training boats: 3

External links