Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her questions.
Yes, it is worrisome. We are aware of buoys in various places around the world. China leaves buoys in various places for marine sciences research, but we are afraid that the information gathered may be used for other purposes, specifically military purposes. We and the intelligence community are monitoring the situation, especially when there are new discoveries based on intelligence shared among our allies, in order to better understand what is going on. Those buoys have been found not just in Japan, but in various places in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic. Everyone is trying to understand the type of data being collected.