[Brief translation]
The government is discussing promoting ocean development as a national strategy while keeping "Science and Technology Policy", which starts from the 2006 fiscal year for 5 years, in mind. Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) emphasizes a great potential of ocean development, pointing out that those undeveloped energy, minerals, and marine lives still existing in the ocean could contribute to a solution of recent problems including rising prices of natural resources and food shortages.