In this article we examine the role ocean information plays in providing safety for marine sports, taking the open water swimming events in Shonan as an example. Active coordination between the worlds of marine sports and oceanography are being called for, as safety management based on local ocean information is needed, rather than an over-reliance on experience.

In the Hokkaido village of Shakotancho on the Shakotan Peninsula, where rocky shore denudation is severe, environmental conservation activities centering on commercial fishermen and with the collaboration of leisure divers are underway in earnest. While reports of trouble between commercial fishermen who make their living on the sea and those engaged in marine leisure are not uncommon, in Shakotancho they are working together as a community, hand in hand, to restore richness to their coasts.

All over Japan, we find monuments dedicated to marine life in the form of graves, burial mounds and stone monuments. If anything, these monuments have been erected with greater enthusiasm since the start of the modern era; and in erecting these monuments, both the reasons for doing so and perceptions of the memorial act have become more diverse, in line with the development of Japanese fisheries. The existence of monuments for marine creatures holds a clue to understanding the unique relationship of the Japanese with the sea.
Selected Papers No.15