Speech by Governor Kaihara of Hyogo Prefecture.
Governor

Schaefer,distinguishedguests,ladies

andgentlemen, it is a great privilege for me to be able to be herewith you to attend EMECS '93.
First of all, I would like to express my appreciation toGovernor Schaefer of Maryland, the Maryland State
Government and the University of Maryland for theirtremendous efforts that have made EMECS '93 a reality.
Japan is a nation that is made up of four main islands and numerous smaller ones.
Three of these four main islands Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu serve as the boundariesfor an inland sea called the Seto Inland Sea. This inland sea covers nearly three times
the area of Chesapeake Bay. It is dotted with countless islands and has a scenic beauty
that rivals that of the Aegean Sea.
As Japan's industrial areas bordering this inland sea expanded, environmental
pollution likewise increased, to the point that in the 1970's there was a real danger of
the Inland Sea becoming agdead sea." To cope with the crisis, local governments inthe coastal regions established the Governors' and Mayors' Conference on theEnvironmental Protection of the Seto Inland Sea (Note 1). Since that time, thisorganization has worked with the Environment Agency of Japan to establish
regulations for landfills and factory waste water and to facilitate the disposal ofhousehold effluent. These efforts have enabled the crisis to be averted and halted thedecline in water quality.
However, the coastal area bordering the Seto Inland Sea is home to 34 million people. In
order to both preserve the environment and still ensure an affluent lifestyle for thesepeople, many problems must still be overcome in many different areas, including
government, economics, science and technology and education.
Faced with these problems, in 1987 Professor Ian Morris and other people from theUniversity of Maryland visited me for an exchange of views. It was at this time that I
became aware of how important it was for different regions facing the same problems ofpreserving and utilizing the environment of enclosed coastal seas to share effective

knowledge, technologies and information and pool their efforts to find solutions to theseproblems. Subsequently, I recommended that an international conference be held forthis purpose.
Fortunately, this proposal was endorsed by many people, and EMECS '90 was held in1990 in the city of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture, the Prefecture of which I am Governor.
1,238 delegates came from 42 countries to attend the conference. Among the many
significant achievements of this conference was a consensus that strong politicalcommitment and an approach to coastal management that involves all concerned
parties will be needed in future efforts to preserve enclsed coastal seas, as expressed in
the Seto Inland Sea Declaration adopted at the conference.
Subsequently, in order to best utilize the achievements of EMECS '90, we moved ahead
with plans to create an international network. This was intended to both support theResearch Institute for the Seto Inland Sea (Note 2) made up mainly of people involved
in related research and also facilitate the exchange of information between researchers
studying enclosed coastal seas.
Since 1990, we have also welcomed relevant government officials from developing
countries for research aimed at the transfer of technologies for the environmental
management of enclosed coastal seas. These international activities on the part of
Hyogo Prefecture have attracted a great deal of interest from researchers andorganizations in nations facing enclosed coastal seas around the world, and the fruits of
the network have been growing steadily.
The Agenda 21 adopted at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last year isstill fresh in my memory. It calls forg...new approaches to marine and coastal area

management and development, at the national, subregional, regional and global levels,
approaches that are integrated in content and are precautionary and anticipatory inambit...." It also gave several examples of programe areas for these efforts.
Therefore, I think it is very significant that following the success of EMECS '90
researchers, government officials and citizens groups working to preserve theenvironment of enclosed coastal seas around the world have come together at EMECS'93 to deepen ties and find ways to deal with the many problems relating to thepreservation of the environment and the appropriate use of enclosed coastal seas, inorder to pass on the bounties of our enclosed coastal seas to the next generation.

It is my hope that the EMECS conferences, first held in 1990 and now in 1993, willcontinue to be held on a regular basis, and that they will continue to contribute to theenvironmental management of enclosed coastal seas.
For this purpose, I feel that it would be helpful to set up an organization of international
character and demension to serve as the wellspring for promoting future EMECS
conferences and encouraging international efforts at the environmental management ofenclosed coastal seas. Moreover, it seems to me that the incentive to do so has become
stronger in recent years.
Therefore, speaking on behalf of Hyogo Prefecture, I would like to express our intention
to establish with the cooperation of all the participants gathered here today and otherrelevant individuals and organizations what I am tentatively calling the InternationalEMECS Center in the city of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
The International EMECS Center would, in theory, further expand on the activities that
Hyogo Prefecture has taken a leading role in promoting since EMECS '90. It is my hopethat during the term of EMECS '93 we will be able to obtain an understanding andrecognition of the benefits of establishing such an organization on the part of thescholars, government officials, citizens groups and international organizations
participating in this conference, and to achieve worldwide support to serve as a base forthis endeavor.
In closing, I would like to again thank Governor Schaefer, the State of Maryland and theUniversity of Maryland for all that they have done to ensure the success of EMECS '93.
Thank you for your attention.
Note 1: The Governors' and Mayors' Conference on the Environmental Protection of theSeto Inland Sea consists of 13 prefectures and five designated cities that work together
to protect the environment of the Seto Inland Sea.
Note 2: The Research Institute for the Seto Inland Sea is an academic researchorganization made up mainly of people involved in research related to the Seto Inland
Sea.