The marine equipment industry produces all of the equipment and parts fitted onto ships, but the indispensable support for the industry is to be found in its master craftsmen. The Japanese Marine Equipment Association would like to take this opportunity to honor their long years of study, as well as encourage those coming up after them, by establishing the Marine Equipment "Meister ECertification.

When Japan was opened to the outside world during the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, the ocean made trade possible with East Asia and the Western Powers but at the same time created an environment in which highly contagious diseases could enter the country. The subjection of foreign registered ships to quarantine was more than just a routine port operation, however, as it also signaled Japan's arrival as a modern state. This article introduces past and current conditions in Japan's treaty-ports quarantine operations.

Fish as a marine resource do not simply spring out of the sea. If proper resource management is not carried out they will disappear. As fish ecology differs according to the species, fish taxonomy is essential to protecting our marine resources. A taxonomic reevaluation of even the shapes of the common fish that appear on our dinner tables is now becoming necessary.