The Japan Coast Guard plans to install radars and surveillance cameras on remote islands to boost its ability to monitor and respond to illegal operations by North Korean fishing vessels in the Sea of Japan and repeated incursions by Chinese ships in Japan's territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The radars and cameras will be installed on steel towers erected near lighthouses at 23 locations on islands in Okinawa, Kagoshima and Shimane prefectures to strengthen surveillance of nearby waters.
The JCG plans to start operating the surveillance equipment as soon as fiscal 2019.
According to the JCG, the radars will be capable of providing the location information of ships sailing up to 50 kilometers offshore.
The cameras can provide images of objects up to several kilometers away. Data and images will be sent to the JCG headquarters in Tokyo. If a suspicious ship is detected, the JCG will be able to quickly decide whether to dispatch a patrol boat to the area or take other measures.
The lighthouses are located in places with good views over the sea and have equipment that can supply power. The JCG has already concluded contracts for purchasing radars and other equipment to be installed at 20 locations on islands in Okinawa Prefecture. Construction has started on some of these facilities. The JCG has not announced the precise locations of these facilities.
The JCG will install radars and cameras at two locations in Kagoshima Prefecture. It has also decided to add an installation on Shimane Prefecture's Nishinoshima island in the Sea of Japan, following a spate of illegal operations by North Korean fishing boats in the sea last year.
The fiscal 2017 supplementary budget approved on Thursday included about 280 million yen for the cost of purchasing radars and other equipment that will be installed at three locations. The JCG will consider increasing this amount depending on how operations at these sites proceed.
The JCG plans to combine this radar surveillance network with the JCG's existing surveillance and warning system that uses satellites to swiftly confirm the situation in waters near Japan's coast.
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