In order to utilize the oceans more directly and effectively, it is necessary to establish technologies for economical construction, maintenance and inspection of platforms that can be the bases of various activities. Welding and cutting under water are critical technologies for marine structures, and the technology development for higher quality as well as automation and systematization for more economical works have been investigated.

Hakodate City in Hokkaido had once been developed as "a city of the northern-sea fishery, shipbuilding, and the Seikan Ferries." Now, it is aiming at becoming "a central city for academics and research that can play a world-leading role in marine science," based on a new conception in which the superiority of the Hakodate area relating to fishery and oceans can be utilized. It is hoped that Hakodate City can achieve the status of an international ocean city, such as Naples in Italy or Woods Hole in the USA.
Selected Papers No.6(p.9)

It is said that people of Japan show a low degree of interest in the sea, despite the fact that Japan is completely surrounded by seas. It has often been pointed out that one of the reasons might lie in insufficient education on the sea in the school system ranging from elementary schools to universities (postgraduate schools). For this reason, the number of descriptions on the sea in actually-used textbooks was counted, in order to estimate to what extent education on the sea has been performed in elementary schools and junior high schools, the schools of compulsory education in Japan. As the result, it was found that items relating to the sea account for approximately 8% of the total pages of textbooks for main subjects used in elementary schools and junior high schools.