Strong interest in methane hydrate has been growing under the circumstances of energy conversion from oil to natural gas. Volume of methane in methane hydrate is 164 times as much as methane hydrate volume.Japan is a world leader of the exploration of methane hydrate. Recently we found methane hydrate and flares of methane plumes on the sea floor in Japan Sea.
Selected Papers No.9(p.4)

MET institutions in Japan have just began to be scaled down. This is obviously expected from the perspective of the demand for Japanese officers on board ocean going vessels. On another front, the training for foreign officers by Japanese shipping companies have been encouraged in recent days. This article considers the feature of MET systems which is required by a strong industry-government-academia structure.

The small-scale fishermen in tropical Asia Pacific are troubled by the reduction of coastal fisheries resources due to overfishing and ecocide. The fishermen of Okinawa widened the targets to offshore migratory fish associated with Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) as alternatives for the decreased coastal resources. Is it possible to recover the fisheries resources in coral reefs and mangroves by utilizing FADs?