Since ancient times, the more remote frontiers have been more important to continental nations, which share borders with other countries, in terms of national defense, and every possible resource has been invested in remote regions. For Japan, an island nation made up of more than 6,800 islands, the sea is our frontier. The people of Japan have been relatively unaware of this frontier, all the more precisely because Japan is an island nation. Today, the ocean has tremendous potential as a frontier of resource development and economic growth. The development of its frontiers and the underlying premise of the enhancement of maritime governance are important to the maritime nation of Japan.