The second Basic Plan on Ocean Policy addresses the promotion and creation of "Ocean Industries, Especifying mid-range goals for commercialization as well as initiatives over the next 5 years. However, in order to create new industries for ocean resource development, a national industry promotion policy is indispensable and the development of qualified personnel for ocean industries is also an important issue.

Out of a desire to assist in the reconstruction of the Sanriku area along the Pacific coast devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, an Interdisciplinary Research Group on Ocean Energy for Tohoku Regeneration has been set up at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science, where it has carried out research on a concept for a marine energy research city as a driving force for reconstruction and regeneration. It is our sincere hope that, as marine energy is perfectly suited to the beautiful Sanriku terrain between the mountains and the ocean, a world-renowned research city devoted to beautiful and powerful marine energy could come into being.

There is concern over the large number of marine exotic organisms expected to arrive on the west coast of America from Japan, with the large pieces of floating debris that had been washed out into the Pacific by the March 11 tsunami at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The likelihood of marine organisms from Japan invading the west coast is undoubtedly increasing due to the arrival of the floating debris from the tsunami. Marine scientists from America visited Japan to research what organisms had lived with the floating docks which the same type of the dock had been washed out to sea by the tsunami. Japanese scientists and other experts helped the research.
Selected Papers No.18