Now, ardent surfers can be found all over the world. Some of them have established the Surfrider Foundation, which calls for environmental conservation of shorelines where they surf. Their mission does not only speak for the benefit of surfers. Natural shorelines are the assets of all people on earth. In order to protect shorelines and to hand them down to future generations, it is essential for the entire civic sector to participate.

The 100th anniversary of the end of the Japanese-Russo War will be in 2005, and Dalian Port, which was developed by Russia as an ice-free port and that was taken over by Japan as an open port during the Japanese-Russo War, demonstrates its internationality today as a free trade zone in China. Ships built in Dalian as a port of registry were characteristic of Japanese ships, and they were the predecessors of ships with a flag of convenience. As these ships were the products of Japanese ship owners in a constitutional state, I think that they will serve as references for discussions about today's international shipping system and free trade zones.

The Chittagong shipbreaking yard is a major ship recycling area with the world's third largest amount of dismantled ships by a method called "beaching" to dismantle aging ships with the use of ocean tide levels and human-wave tactics with some 20,000 labors. However, there is also concern over the impact of the beaching method on human bodies and oceans.