The Engineering Advancement Association of Japan (ENAA) hosted an event last August entitled the "Ocean Development Kids'Challenge," aimed at promoting interest in ocean development among children, the leaders of the next generation. Over the two days of the event there were 3,000 people in attendance, with a festive venue atmosphere due to the many children on summer vacation accompanied by their parents. Due to the hands-on nature of the event, we were able to provide an opportunity for learning about marine ocean resources and energy and for gaining a broader and deeper understanding of the ocean and ocean development.

As an extracurricular association for students at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, the Maritime Outreach Group (Kaiji Fukyu Kai) has carried out speaking tours on maritime topics to schools around the country for more than 50 years. Hampered by lack of name recognition, the number of maritime careers and industries familiar to pupils around the country is limited, providing few materials for career guidance. Given these conditions, we believe the Maritime Outreach Group's activities, as part of career guidance and the social studies curriculum in schools around the country, plays an effective role in the future development of the maritime industry.

In order to promote fish consumption the fisheries industry has established the 'Osakana Meister' system to ensure that the excellent aspects of a seafood diet are conveyed to the public by meisters, or experts, with a wide knowledge of seafood. With the motto of "conveying accurate information to consumers," they are now putting their efforts into the promotion of seafood consumption to elementary and junior high school students.