On 21 June 2016, NISCSS President Wu Shicun attended the Symposium on "Enhancing a Cooperative Relationship in the Seas of East Asia", which was co-organized by the NISCSS and the Ocean Policy Research Foundation (OPRF) of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

President Wu headed a delegation of Chinese scholars and was invited to deliver opening and closing remarks. Wu also participated in the discussion of the panel on coordination and cooperation in ocean affairs.

The conference lasted one day. There were five panels on Chinese and Japanese ocean issues and policies, marine environmental protection, ocean resources management, maritime security and diplomacy, as well as coordination and cooperation in ocean affairs.

There were more than forty scholars, experts and observers from the NISCSS, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, East China University of Political Science and Law, Waseda University, Sophia University, the OPRF, and Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies.

The Chinese embassy in Japan also sent representatives to the conference.