Our country, which is poor in resources, developing efficient survey methods for marine mineral resources within its own EEZ and production technologies with extremely low environmental impact, and establishing a system that can supply at any time in response to international situations is a very important initiative for national security.
The Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) Phase 2 "Innovative Deep Sea Resource Survey Technology," completed in March 2023 by the Cabinet Office, confirmed the existence of a rare earth mud concentration zone in the deep sea within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around Minami-Tori-shima, containing a large amount of heavy rare earth elements that are mainly found in southern China, among other places, and revealed its distribution.
Furthermore, it has made world-first achievements in the production technology of rare earth mud from a depth of about 6,000m and in survey technology for marine mineral resources.
The developed ocean environmental observation equipment is expected to be widely used in various marine industries as a marine-wide monitoring system that can observe from deep sea areas to shallow sea areas.
Against this background, the Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) Phase 3 Ocean Issue, which aims to advance the conservation and utilization of important marine resources for national security, started in April 2023 as a 5-year plan to build a "Marine Security Platform."
This project aims to contribute to the establishment of a new resource supply network that is not dependent on specific countries and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through the development of new technologies such as a new marine environmental monitoring system using marine robotics in Society 5.0, promoting the utilization of marine mineral resources within EEZ, and conducting basic research on new large-scale CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
Through this program, we are confident that further activation of the marine industry will be achieved, leading to a significant advancement in the future of Japan as a maritime nation.
We kindly ask for your continued understanding and support.
After graduating from Niigata University's Faculty of Humanities, Department of Economics in 1973, he joined Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. (JAPEX) the same year. In 2003, he became Director and Head of the Planning Department. In 2005, he was promoted to Senior Executive Officer and Director of the Nagaoka Mining Division. In 2006, he became Senior Managing Director, and in 2011, he was appointed Executive Vice President. In 2014, he assumed the dual role of Vice President and Head of the Soma Project. He served as an advisor to the company until 2020.
In 2008, he became the President and CEO of Japan CCS Co., Ltd. at the time of its founding. He currently serves as an advisor.
In addition to holding numerous key positions, in 2016, he was appointed Acting Program Director for the Cabinet Office's SIP Phase 1 "Next-Generation Marine Resource Survey Technology" and served as Program Director for SIP Phase 2 "Innovative Deep-Sea Resource Survey Technology."
