95% of international voice and data communication is made by way of international submarine cables. Although we benefit from international submarine cables in our everyday lives, Japan and many other countries have inadequate legal regimes for management of cables outside of their territorial waters. Urgent discussion is thus needed on how to protect submarine cables from fishing and other activities.

At present, in addition to its anti-terrorist operations in the Indian Ocean, the Maritime Self-Defense Force is participating in anti-piracy operations in the waters off Somalia. This has created conditions in which units must strain to meet requirements for their defense duties, training, and maneuvers by dispatching forces from among the naval vessels and military aircraft that have been eliminated by the current Defense Program Guideline. It is my hope that the situation will improve with a new Maritime Self-Defense Force operation concept that takes into account the changes in the security environment.

This paper introduces the Ningbo Project, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary collaborative research effort that reexamines the exchanges that took place in East Asia from the perspective of the formation of Japanese culture, focusing on the thousand year period from the ending of Japan's missions to Tang China to the beginning of modern international relations.