The Research Center for Coastal Lagoon Environments (ReCCLE), established on 1 st April 1992, is the only research center to investigate on brackish water regions. The aim of ReCCLE is to conduct research in solving environmental and social problems in lagoon and coastal areas. The environment surrounding the lagoon is related to the conditions of catchment area, surrounding basin, and coastal regions, in a complicated manner. Eventually, additional collective and interdisciplinary studies are required for utilization of coastal environment and sustainable development.

The majority of coastal lakes in Japan belong to “estuary” than “lagoon”, where estuary is defined as drowned river valleys by marine inundation for the last several thousand years and estuary includes coastal lake, and surrounding coastal regions. On 1 st April 2017, ReCCLE was renamed as Estuary Research Center (EsReC) to specify the objectives of research center at solving the estuary environment and ecology. EsReC is the only research center named estuary in Japan. EsReC consists of three research divisions: [Environmental Change Research Division], [Environmental Fluid Dynamics Research Division], and [Aquatic Ecology Research Division]. EsReC conducts research within Japan and all over the world, but particularly in the Asian estuaries, and neighboring Lake Nakaumi, and Lake Shinji. EsReC aims to become the central estuary research center as hubs for Japan and Asian countries.