The ocean gives sustenance to people from every country and is the common heritage of mankind. As such, it is also our common responsibility. With the ocean today facing many problems, such as accidents at sea, piracy, and environmental pollution, now is the time to cooperate across national borders and coordinate our efforts on counter-measures to address these problems.
Selected Papers No.8(p.14)

It has been long debated among earth scientists such like me how much we would be able to contribute to the prediction and mitigation of catastrophic natural disasters. For example, a large plate-subduction earthquake might lead to a collapse of Japanese society and economy. Drilling into the seismogenic zone by the deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu enables us to install high-resolution real-time observation and warning system that might be very effective for disaster mitigation of the great plate-boundary earthquake.

Since September 11, the Celebes sea area has drawn attention.There is a terrorist network spreading to Mindanao via the Sangihe Talaud islands from North Sulawesi built by the Al-Qaeda-linked-group Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah.How should we monitor them in a bigger transnational network of personal contacts?