Marine security forces from Japan, Thailand and Malaysia today carried out a simulated attack on a cargo ship in a dramatic anti-piracy exercise.

"It's great coordination between the agencies, the three countries," Malaysian police official, Abdul Manaf Othman, told reporters after the first-ever drill by the three nations, which involved some 200 personnel.

The exercise was part of Japan's efforts to boost cooperation with Southeast Asian countries around the strategic but piracy-prone Malacca Straits, which is bounded by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

The operation, in Thai waters 30 nautical miles from Malaysia's tourist island of Langkawi, saw the Japanese coast guard's Yashima patrol vessel playing the role of a hijacked Panama-flagged ship operated by a Japanese company.

They played out scenarios rescuing two members of the ship's crew in a life raft and pursuing the pirates' ship, before the exercise reached its climax with the "capture" of the vessel.

Malaysian special forces commandos rappelled from a helicopter onto the bow of the Yashima, accompanied by rocket sound effects and pea-green smoke, to apprehend two police officers who were decked out as pirates.

Japan ready to help guard waterways

With nearly all of the oil powering its economy travelling through the Malacca Straits, Japan has said it is prepared to help guard the waterway and has stepped up aid to fight piracy.

"The cooperation with such countries is very important. So we strongly want to keep a good relationship with these countries," said Nobuharu Kagami, director of the Japan Coast Guard's Piracy Countermeasures Office.

"Many resources come to Japan through the Malacca Singapore Strait so the safety of the (strait) is very important to Japan," he said.

The coast guard has conducted bilateral drills with Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, and Kagami said Japan wanted to see more countries involved in larger multilateral exercises.

The manoeuvres saw a few hiccups after the Thai Marine Department's patrol boat dropped out due to technical problems, as did a Thai speedboat, replaced with a Malaysian one after quick consultations.

Officials from the three countries were also put to the test using English as the common language.

"It's true that for Japanese, the English language is a headache," said Kagami. "We would like to speak English more fluently."