In the waters around Japan, about 2,000 ship accidents occur every year. Once a ship accident occurs, precious lives and properties are lost, and it may have a great impact on Japan's economic activities and marine environment. On April 20, 2018, the Council of Transport Policy reported on "Efforts for Further Improvement of Maritime Safety, including Ship Traffic Safety," as the 4th Marine Traffic Vision. In light of the rapidly changing social conditions, such as technological innovation, this vision shows the tasks and planned target for the next about five years The JCG will strongly promote efforts for improvement of maritime safety based on this vision.
Current State of Maritime Accidents
Current state in 2019
Definition of maritime accident
In 2018, the JCG revised the definition of maritime accidents in order to take more effective measures to prevent maritime accidents. For "ship accidents," not only maritime accidents handled by the JCG but also those handled by private rescue organizations alone were also included in the number of maritime accident ships in order to get an overall picture of the maritime accidents. For the purpose of reducing maritime accidents more effectively after clarifying the targets and taking specific measures, we have classified accidents into "ship accidents" and "ship incidents." The former refers to accidents that cause damage impeding the operation of the ship or a specific danger. The latter refers to those that do not cause damage. We take measures with an emphasis on the former, i.e., ship accidents. For "personal marine accidents", we also made a classification as follows for the same reasons as ship accidents: Those that result in casualties during activities at sea or underwater as "those resulting in injury or death" and those that did not as "other troubles related to personal injury".
Safety Measures for Congested Waters or in Ports
The JCG provides guidance to comply with maritime traffic rules in order to ensure the safety of maritime traffic. In particular, we have set a goal of reducing the number of large-scale maritime accidents to "zero" in congested waters because such accidents block traffic routes and have a significant social impact. The JCG provides accurate information and performs navigation controls 24 hours a day at Vessel Traffic Service Centers, and strives to prevent ship accidents.
OSAKA WAN Vessel Traffic Service Centers
Safety Measures for Water Activities
The JCG aims to reduce accidents associated with recreational activities in coastal waters, such as ship operations and water activities, and to improve the rescue rate in the event of such accident. In particular, we are actively performing maritime accident prevention activities for small ships (pleasure boats, fishing boats, and leisure fishing boats), which account for about 80% of ship accidents, and accidents during water excursions, such as canoeing, stand up paddle boarding (SUP), swimming, fishing, etc.
Visiting guidance at fishing ports and marinas
Aids to navigation for safe navigation and provision of navigational safety information
The JCG maintains and manages various aids to navigation, such as lighthouses, to improve the safety of ship traffic and operational efficiency. The JCG also strives to prevent ship accidents by providing information necessary for navigational safety promptly and reliably by various means.
