JAPAN'S wind industry wants its government to open vast areas beyond its territorial waters in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for the deployment of floating turbines, as part of a package of measures to scale up the nation's offshore wind power capacity. Floating wind in the deep waters off Japan is seen as playing a potential key role in the country's energy future, but the nation's wind industry is concerned policies designed to kick-start the sector are limited by only applying to territorial waters, within 12 nautical miles (22 km) where full sovereign rights apply, and not to the EEZ, which stretches 200 nm from coastal baselines and confers rights to tap marine resources. Japan Wind Power Association (JWPA) president Jin Kato said the strong winds in the deeper waters of the EEZ "have high potential" but said unlocking development raises issues of "coordination" with neighbouring nations. "We'd like the government to make this happen as soon as possible, that is the request we will be making," he told reporters last week.
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