Opening Address

Thank you Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I'm Kenichi Maruyama, Director of Technology Division of Maritime Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. I would like to deliver an address on behalf of the organizer of this symposium.

Thank you all indeed for participating this symposium from all over the world, and I would like to extend a cordial welcome to you all.

The oceans have limitless potential, and thus, they are truly the last and the greatest frontier of the Earth. The objective of this symposium is to internationally exchange information on research and development of ocean utilization technology., to identify technical problems and subjects of the research, and to set the direction of the future research and development

As you know well, Japan is a nation surrounded by oceans. Although, it has such a small land-area of 380,000 (three hundred eighty thousand) square kilometers, its exclusive economic zone covers 4,470,000 (four million four hundred seventy thousand) square kilometers; which represents more than ten times of the land. It is the 6th largest in the world. Except for some fields such as fishery, however, Japan is at the beginning stage of ocean utilization. For this reason, Japanese government is focusing their effort on promoting ocean utilization in the days to come.

Some criticize that the Japanese have been a coastal people, not an oceanic people. It is imperative for us to transform ourselves into an oceanic people. A keyword for Japan in the 21st century is �gOcean�h.

Under such present conditions, Mega-Float�Cone of the new technologies of ocean space utilization, has caused quite an enthusiasm in Japan. It is also one of the subjects to be discussed at this symposium. In 1999, with a support from Japanese government and The Nippon Foundation, Japanese shipbuilding and steel companies succeeded in constructing a 1,000-meter-long floating airport of Mega-Float, and its safety and reliability were duly proved through take-off and landing tests of airplane.

Unfortunately, the floating airport was disassembled into some 10 pieces for removal right after the completion of experiment due to the circumstances of the installation area. And today you can only see the floating airport in photos and film footages. However, each of the dismantled pieces has found a new life as a harbor facility in various areas.

This symposium has attracted attendance of approximately 100 researchers. I wish you every success in your discussions on many fields of the ocean space utilization technology over the next two days.

Last but not the least, I give my great thanks to Ship & Ocean Foundation for the financial sponsorship, The Society of Naval Architects of Japan for the cordial support, and National Maritime Research Institute for the devoted secretariat. I am also deeply grateful to Prof. Yoshida, Prof. Kagemoto and Prof. Ertekin for accepting the chairmanships of this symposium. I hope this symposium becomes one giant leap to promote the ocean development throughout the world.

Thank you very much for your attention.