After diving through various obstacles in the water, someone appeared... "We are the Japan Coast Guard. We are here to help you." They are experts in maritime rescue, superheroes of the Japan Coast Guard, commonly known as "Umizaru." Among them, 0.6% of the elite are selected and exist in the seas of Osaka. The one who tries to overcome the 0.6% barrier is... "Nice! Good! Good!" This man. [Moriguchi] "4 points (out of 100). You still can't do the basics..." "If you give up just because it's hard, I think it will be much more difficult to save people who are asking for help right now." He will not give up on himself or on saving lives. We followed the man who aims for even greater heights. Kansai International Airport is the gateway to the skies of Osaka and Kansai. Next to it is the Japan Coast Guard's Kansai Airport Security Air Base. This base is staffed by about 80 people. They watch over the safety of the sea from the sky by aircraft. The area of ​​jurisdiction is the sea from Wakayama to Osaka Bay and Kochi. There are a total of 19 bases in this area. Among them, this is a special base. "Salute!" The reason is that they are wearing bright orange. Who are they? "Splash!" "Sea monkeys" rescue people who need help from underwater. They are "Mobile Rescue Officers" selected from the "Sea monkeys". They head out to sea rescue missions from helicopters with just a rope. They are "Flying Sea Monkeys". There are 90 mobile rescue officers in the whole country, only 0.6%. There are 9 mobile rescue officers at the Kansai Airport base. Among the men in orange clothes, only one wears navy blue clothes... He is a new mobile rescue officer, Moriguchi Yuta, 28 years old, who came to this base this spring. A mobile rescue officer needs to be qualified as a diver. Moriguchi has four years of experience as a diver. [Mr. Moriguchi] The training on this day was based on the assumption of rescue from a sunken ship. A rack about 50 cm wide was set up underwater. Moriguchi, 167cm tall, slips through with ease. Next comes a net. He smoothly shakes off the net that is wrapped around his body. [Moriguchi] "This is the Japan Coast Guard. We're here to help you. Are you okay?" And then, the rescue is a success. [Moriguchi] "I thought you would come to interview me, so I did my best!" Moriguchi is also good at cooking. She is from Nishi-ku, Kobe, which is close to the sea. [Moriguchi] "I saw footage of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and there was footage of the Coast Guard in action, and I was so impressed that I wanted to do this kind of work." On this day. Moriguchi is a little nervous, but is immersed in image training. They arrive at the breakwater facing Osaka Bay. From now on, they will be doing... Helicopter training. Today, they are supposed to rescue an injured fisherman from the sky. Typhoon-like strong winds are constantly blowing from the helicopter... A senior member of the team descends from a height almost the same as a five-story building. Looking at his hands, he adjusts the rope himself. After making sure the landing point was safe, he reached the ground. He quickly picked up the rescuer and went back to the helicopter. The rescue took only about five minutes. Next was Moriguchi's turn... but he was different from his seniors. He descended slowly and carefully. Moriguchi was an apprentice mobile rescuer. He was not yet allowed to descend from the helicopter on his own like his seniors because it was dangerous. Then he went to the rescuer. He seemed to be having a little trouble. He somehow managed to get up into the air. However... The captain gave him some harsh criticism. He was warned about how to use the equipment. - How many points would you give for today's training out of 100? [Moriguchi] "Four points" "I think there were a lot of difficult parts" The elite mobile rescuers belonging to the Kansai Airport base. What kind of person is their boss? "He's very cool, but he's also friendly" "I don't know if I should say this, but he's cute" The boss, who is described by the staff as such, arrived by plane. [Base Commander Nakabayashi] "Thank you for your hard work." This woman is Base Commander Nakabayashi Hisako, who was appointed in April this year as the first female base commander of the Japan Coast Guard. Since joining the Japan Coast Guard in 1991, she has held a variety of positions that have been the first for women. By the way, when I asked her where she had traveled on this plane... [Base Commander Nakabayashi] "Ah... I can't answer that... Sorry." The Japan Coast Guard is also known as the "police of the sea." Perhaps because they crack down on poaching and suspicious ships and maintain peace at sea, they also handle confidential matters... Nakabayashi grew up in Osaka. I asked her about the base's goals. [Base Commander Nakabayashi] "I want to make this a base where everyone can come to you with a positive attitude and enjoy their work every day." As for Moriguchi, the new mobile rescuer who rated his helicopter training at "four points"... [Base Commander Nakabayashi] "In fact, he has room to improve by 96 points. I'm sure he's looking forward to that too." But Moriguchi had another wall to overcome. "I can do it! I can do it! I can do it! Yes!" In training to simulate a rescue, you quickly come to land and jump into the sea. The quota is eight round trips in 10 minutes. Moriguchi has not yet achieved this quota. [Moriguchi] "Yes..." "I think I can do it too!" Full of energy. [Moriguchi] "Moriguchi, you're ready! (Splash)" The start went well. And the first run. He reached the top! He immediately went on to the second run! He put strength into his arms... and pushed his body up! But... he fell. He tried again, but... [Moriguchi] "Ahh!!!!" He couldn't get out the second time. Over 20 kilograms of equipment, including tanks, dragged his body into the sea. [Akamatsu] "Fight!" [Seniors] "Yes! Go!" "Let's decide. Let's get up properly." [Seniors] "Okay, okay... okay!!!!" He crawled out while being slammed into the sea again and again. After that, it took nearly 30 minutes to finish this harsh training. [Moriguchi] "I managed to swim to the end, but my pace was slowing down. That's frustrating." [Senior, Kita] "I feel that the trick, or rather, my own way of getting up is not just about muscle strength, although it's not the only thing." From the boat, he was also watching the training. [Base Commander Nakabayashi] "Thank you for your hard work. Please do your best to take pictures." Moriguchi needs to be recognized by his seniors to become a full-fledged mobile rescuer. To do that, he needs to go through even more rigorous training. At the end of the interview, I asked him this. -Are there times when you feel like quitting? [Moriguchi] "No. I want to do what I can for people waiting to be rescued if something happens, so I never feel that way." No matter what the situation, he never gives up on himself or on saving lives. Aiming to be proud of his orange color, he continues his daily training. ─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─━─ We deliver "easy news" in a simple and easy-to-understand way, sports, and collaboration projects with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun every day! [Subscribe to the channel] https://www.youtube.com/c/tvosakanews... [SNS] ▶X(Twitter) / tvosaka_news ▶Facebook / tvosaka.news.fb ▶TikTok / tvonews ▶Instagram / tvonews