Japan may stand a good chance of seeing its internationally recognized continental shelf expanded without the use of force by up to 650,000 square kilometers--an area 1.7 times the nation's entire territorial landmass that is rich in natural resources.
In the event this happens, the nation will find itself in possession of an abundance of mineral resources, and will have to stop calling itself a resource-poor country.
There are many hurdles that must be overcome, however, before Japan can win U.N. recognition of its claim to the extended continental shelf.
The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982 and took effect in 1994. It defined coastal nations' continental shelves as the "seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas...to a distance of 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometers)."
Article 76 of the U.N. convention stipulates: "The coastal state exercises over the continental shelf sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources," while Article 77 reads: "The coastal state shall have the exclusive right to authorize and regulate drilling on the continental shelf for all purposes."
The concept of the continental shelf under the Law of the Sea is effectively the same as that of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, in which the coastal state has sovereign rights for "exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or nonliving," as referred to by Article 56 of the law.
Of further significance in relation to the continental shelf is the right set out in Paragraph 4 of Article 76. This states that the coastal state can extend the "outer limit of the continental shelf" by a maximum 350 nautical miles, or about 650 kilometers, if the area involved satisfies a set of conditions such as scientific evidence that it is the submerged extension of the territorial landmass.
The procedure for filing applications for approval of the extended continental shelf with the U.N. Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (CLCS), which operates under the Law of the Sea, must be finished by the end of May 2009, in accordance with an international agreement.
The 21-member U.N. panel consists of experts in geology, geophysics and related sciences, to which applicant countries must submit data regarding crustal structures, geological characteristics and other information relevant to the panel's screening.
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Sources of conflict
Disputes over resources have often been the cause of armed conflict between states.
Given that the convention means countries may be able to obtain "new territories" without using military force, about 30 nations have already begun preparing applications to the CLCS, according to the Maritime Safety Agency's Ocean Surveys Division.
The Law of the Sea provisions on extended continental shelves do not apply, however, to waters where the EEZ of one country is contiguous with that of a neighboring country--as is the case in the Sea of Japan and East China Sea.
Among Japan's strong candidate waters for establishing expanded continental shelf rights are those around Okino-Torishima and Minami-Torishima islands in the Pacific.
Okino-Torishima, an unhabited island about 11 kilometers across, located 1,700 kilometers south of Tokyo, is Japan's southern extremity, while Minami-Torishima, with an area of about 1.2 square kilometers, marks the country's eastern limit.
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20 trillion yen at stake
The MSA has been conducting research into the two small islands since 1983--the year after the adoption of the Law of the Sea.
Studies by the agency show that the sea floor around the two islands--the area that Japan hopes will be recognized as the nation's extended continental shelf--may cover as much as 650,000 square kilometers, according to the officials.
The sea floor in these areas has been confirmed to hold abundant deposits of precious mineral resources such as methane hydrate, usable as an alternative energy source to crude oil, as well as cobalt and manganese, they said.
In particular, the waters around the two islands are rich in methane hydrate equivalent to 100 years' consumption of natural gas by Japan worth 20 trillion yen, the officials noted.
In a bid to accelerate the studies by the agency, the government has earmarked 10.4 billion yen in its research budget for fiscal 2004, about 50 times the figure for the previous year, and in August held the inaugural session of a liaison meeting of officials from ministries and agencies concerned.
In the spring of this year, a private company was established with the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) to engage in large-scale sea floor resource exploration.
The accelerated moves by Japan to obtain U.N. recognition for an extended continental shelf are driven by two major factors.
One is that an extended continental shelf application submitted by Russia to the U.N. commission has been turned down because undisclosed data was lacking.
"It's very hard for us to gather information about why the Russian bid has been rejected (by the commission)," one MSA official said.
In 2004, then Construction and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi said the task of obtaining U.N. authorization should be addressed not only by the agency, but as a national project involving both public and private entities.
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Friction with China
The other factor is moves by China to conduct resource surveys in the vicinity of Okino-Torishima.
The Chinese survey activities have been undertaken within Japan's EEZ in violation of the Law of the Sea, according to the MSA.
Recently, the Chinese government has begun insisting that Okino-Torishima should not be considered an island, but a cluster of rocks ineligible as the basis for EEZ claims as stipulated by the Law of the Sea. (Right on time as usual.
)The law states that an "island" is a naturally formed area of land surrounded by water that is above water at mean high-water spring tides.
EEZ and extended continental shelf provisions cannot be based on "rocks," which the law defines as a line of large stones sticking up from the sea that are uninhabitable.
The MSA officials said China was keen to secure a route for its submarines from the East China Sea through the Pacific near Okino-Torishima, probably in preparation for a military contingency involving Taiwan.
Should the United Nations classify Okino-Torishima as a rock, not an island, the Chinese will be able to continue their survey activities without restraint, the officials said.
If China finishes its surveys before Japan, there would be a danger that the Chinese government could refute Japan's extended continental shelf claims, they said.
In a separate move, China has been unilaterally conducting natural gas and crude oil development projects in waters close to Japan's EEZ.
To cope with the Chinese moves, it is essential that the Japanese government now develop an effective national strategy to protect the nation's marine resources.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040907wo41.htm