New London ― Officials from the Japan Coast Guard Academy visited the U.S. Coast Guard Academy this week, and the two academy superintendents on Friday signed a letter of intent to resume in-person academic exchanges and training.

The letter states that the academies should promote their relationships “through dialogues among faculty members and officers in charge to pursue better academic, educational, and training experiences for their respective corps of cadets.”

Through the letter, the academies also signaled their intention “to seek other potential opportunities for engagement” between their faculties, staffs and cadets.

U.S. Coast Guard Academy spokesman David Santos said after arriving Thursday, the group from Japan met with Superintendent Rear Adm. William Kelly, got underway on training boats, and toured the Shipboard Control and Navigation Training System, the new Maritime Center of Excellence, and athletic facilities.

Their schedule Friday included meeting with the Asian Pacific American Council, eating lunch with cadets in the wardroom, touring the cadet barracks and engineering department, signing the letter, and being the honored guests in a Regimental Review.

The letter builds on a 2022 expansion of a 2010 memorandum of cooperation between the two coast guards.

The guests from Japan are academy Superintendent Rear Adm. Upper Half Mitsuru Eguchi and his wife, academy Director of Administration Department Capt. Yuji Koyama, Embassy of Japan First Secretary Toru Chochi, Daisuku Komatsu from the Japan International Transport and Tourism Institute, Ensign Masaki Okadome from the education and training division of Japan Coast Guard headquarters, and translator Manabu Yoshinaga.

e.moser@theday.com