25th Japan–Korea Ship Safety and Environment Meeting

On July 29, 2026, the 25th Japan–Korea Ship Safety and Environment Directors' Meeting was held in Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture. As major shipbuilding countries, Japan and Korea discussed international rules on ship safety and marine environmental protection, as well as ensuring the safety of cruise ships calling at ports in both countries.

The meeting has been held in principle every year, alternately in Japan and Korea, since the first meeting in 1996, with the aim of developing international conventions and standards for ensuring ship safety and protecting the marine environment, and establishing and maintaining cooperative relations in PSC.

The two countries agreed to coordinate their responses so that international rules would be effective and reasonable, including from the perspectives of ship design and construction based on ship operations, while ensuring environmental protection and safety.

They exchanged views on PSC inspections of cruise ships and agreed to continue considering cooperation, including mutual exchanges among inspectors, to improve inspection techniques.

Japan and Korea will coordinate their responses to ship discharge management, maneuvering performance standards, and other matters being discussed at the International Maritime Organization. They will respond so that the requirements are effective and reasonable from the perspectives of ship design and construction based on ship operations, while ensuring environmental protection and safety.

To ensure the safety of cruise ships calling at ports in both countries, whose numbers have increased in recent years, the countries will exchange views on PSC inspections and continue considering cooperation, including mutual exchanges among inspectors. Officials from Japan's Maritime Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Korea's Maritime Safety Bureau of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries attended the meeting.