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Courtesy Call by Mr. Shunji YANAI, President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan

November 18, 2011
Japanese

On Friday, November 18, Mr. Shunji YANAI, President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), paid a courtesy call on Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Koichiro Gemba for about 15 minutes from 11:45 a.m. The outline of the meeting is as follows.

  1. At the outset, Minister Gemba welcomed Judge Yanai's appointment as the president of ITLOS. In response, Judge Yanai, who had started fulfilling his mission as the president of ITLOS from October 1 this year, referring to the increasing number of applications instituting proceedings before the Tribunal, explained that ITLOS, as the primary institution for the peaceful settlement of maritime disputes under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, had been steadily accomplishing its mission. He expressed his gratitude toward the Government of Japan for its personnel and financial contribution to ITLOS.

  2. Minister Gemba expressed that the Government of Japan highly appreciates the important role played by the Tribunal in the peaceful settlement of maritime disputes as well as the maintenance and development of the rule of law in matters relating to the oceans and sea. Minister Gemba further stated that Japan would continuously play an active role to provide full support to the Tribunal.

[Notes]
- The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) was established in 1996 in Hamburg, Germany. Judge Shunji Yanai (former Japanese Ambassador to the United States) has been serving as a Judge of ITLOS from 2005.

- Japan has become a party to three cases (Southern Bluefin Tuna Cases, the "Hoshinmaru" case, and the "Tomimaru" case) so far.

- Four cases were instituted before the Tribunal since December 2009.

    • (*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)
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