Nippon Yusen

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File:NYK maritime museum01s3200.jpg

NYK Maritime Museum and NYK's Yokohama branch

File:NYK LINE container.jpeg

NYK Line container

The Template:Nihongo, also known as NYK Line, is a Japanese shipping company. The company headquarters are located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It operates a fleet of over 820 ships, which includes container ships, tankers, bulk and woodchip carriers, roll-on/roll-off car carriers, reefer vessels, LNG carriers, and cruise ships. It is a member of the Ocean Network Express<ref name="Profile"/> and Mitsubishi Group.

HistoryEdit

1870-1900Edit

The company traces its history back to the Tsukumo Shokai shipping company founded by the Tosa clan in 1870. In 1875, as the renamed Mitsubishi Shokai, the company inaugurated Japan's first passenger liner service, with a route from Yokohama to Shanghai; in that same year, the company name was changed to Mitsubishi Mail Steamship Company. In 1885, a merger with Kyodo Unyu Kaisha (founded 1882) led to the adoption of the company's present name.<ref name="history">NYK: History.</ref>

The merged company had a fleet of 58 steamships and expanded its operations rapidly, first to other Asian ports and then worldwide, with a line service to Seattle established in 1896<ref name=shinmasu>Template:Citation</ref> and to London in 1899.<ref name="history" />

The company's Katori Maru was used by Chinese Muslims to travel to Singapore on their way to Makkah for the Hajj in 1925. From there, the company had the pilgrims travel on board other Japanese steamships to Suez and then to Makkah. The company promised to take responsibility for all the necessary formalities and helped contact other local transportation agencies that could take the pilgrims to Makkah. Chinese pilgrims were promised a 20% discount for their tickets. A third-class ticket that sold for £5/10/0 would be £4/8/0, while a second-class ticket sold for £14/0/0 would be sold for £11/5/0.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

1900-1945Edit

The majority of Japanese merchant ships, tankers, and liners sailed under the NYK banner in this period. Regular services linked Kobe and Yokohama with South America, Batavia, Melbourne, and Cape Town, with frequent crossings to San Francisco and Seattle.Template:Citation needed Other routes connected local Chinese cabotage vessels on the Chinese coasts and upper Yangtze River.Template:Citation needed

Ocean routes went east from Japan to Vancouver (Canada) or Seattle.Template:Citation needed Another way was to stop in Hawaii, which continued to San Francisco and the Panama Canal.Template:Citation needed The next commercial routes were south from Japan, across the East China Sea.Template:Citation needed These went to Southeast Asia, the China coasts, and towards India and the Indian Ocean, to Europe or Batavia (Dutch Indies), or Australia and New Zealand.Template:Citation needed The fastest services took 10 days from Yokohama to Seattle, and one month to Europe.Template:Citation needed

Local sea routes connected 78 home seaports (38 open to foreign trade). Yokohama, Kobe, and Osaka had the greatest importance for trading with Japan. These ports had the third, fourth, and eighth place in net tonnage registered in the world.Template:Citation needed Coal passed from Moji to Osaka and Yokohama.Template:Citation needed Karafuto timber represented a third part of local trade. Soybean products from Dairen and Ryojun arrived at Yokohama.Template:Citation needed The sugarcane of the South Seas Mandate and Formosa, cotton, salt, and minerals represented other important parts of these transport transactions.Template:Citation needed In 1926, Toyo Kisen Line (TKK), with its fleet of nine ships, merged with NYK. The current funnel livery was introduced in 1929.Template:Citation needed The company also ran services connecting metropolitan Japan to its exterior provinces (Chosen, Karafuto, Kwantung, Formosa and South Mandate) of the Empire.Template:Citation needed

From 1924, all new cargo ships for NYK were motor ships.Template:Sfn NYK introduced its first passenger motor ships in 1929, but continued to buy a mixture of steam and motor passenger ships until 1939.Template:Sfn

In World War II, the NYK Line provided military transport and hospital ships for the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Many vessels were sunk by the Allied navies, and installations and ports were attacked from the air. Only 37 NYK ships survived the war. The company lost 185 ships in support of military operations in the Pacific.<ref>NYK Europe: Europe: Corporate Profile, history</ref> Before the war, NYK had 36 passenger ships;Template:Sfn by the time of Japan's surrender only one, the motor ship Hikawa Maru, survived.<ref name=CF>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

NYK's surviving vessels and equipment were confiscated by the Allied authorities as reparations, or taken by recently liberated Asian states in 1945-46. Shipping Control Authority for the Japanese Merchant Marine requisitioned Hikawa Maru as a transport ship to repatriate Japanese soldiers and civilians from territories that had been liberated from Japanese occupation.<ref name=CF/>

Fleet until 1945Edit

The NYK tonnage expanded in bursts, responding to changes economic conditions and perceived changes in the market for passenger liner travel. The evolution of the fleet mirrors some of those developments. In the following lists, the dates of maiden voyages are indicated with each ship's name.<ref>Although conventionally used today, unofficial names or sobriquets like Yamashiro Maru II or Yamashiro III are not used here, since each ship's official name was simply Yamashiro Maru. Instead, the year of the ship's maiden voyage or year the vessel entered service is used to tell the ships apart when names are repeated (as in article names), hence Yamashiro Maru (1899), Yamashiro Maru (1912) and Yamashiro Maru (1963) — not Yamashiro Maru, Yamashiro Maru II and Yamashiro Maru III.</ref>

Amongst the many ships in the early NYK fleet, some names comprise serial categories.<ref name="sl_nyk1">ShipsList: NYK Line fleet.</ref> Some ships were named after Shinto shrines, and others were named after ancient provinces of Japan, cities of Japan, mountains of Japan or islands of Japan. Some ships had explicitly non-Japanese names, such as ships named after cities.Template:Fact

{{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}}{{#ifeq:||}} Template:Col-begin Template:Col-5 Shinto shrines
Chichibu Maru (1930).Template:Sfn
Hie Maru (1930).Template:Sfn<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Hie Maru, ID#4036219.</ref>
Heian Maru (1930).Template:Sfn<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Heian Maru, ID#4036813.</ref>
Hikawa Maru (1930).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: HIkawa Maru, ID#4035370.</ref>
Kasuga Maru (1940).Template:Sfn<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Kasuga Maru, ID#4035370.</ref>
Kitano Maru (1909).<ref>N.Y.K. Line S. S. Kitano Maru, Einstein Archives Online, named after the shrine Kitano Tenmangū</ref>
Nitta Maru (1939).<ref>Haworth, R.B. Miramar Ship Index: Nitta Maru, ID#4046813.</ref>
Tatsuta Maru (1930).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref>Haworth, R.B. Miramar Ship Index: Tatsuta Maru, ID#4035362.</ref>
Terukuni Maru (1930).Template:Sfn
Yawata Maru (1939)<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Yawata Maru, ID#4047477.</ref>

Template:Col-5 Provinces<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>N.b. NYK ships named after the former provinces of Japan or kunikyū class</ref>
Awa Maru (1899).Template:Sfn<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Awa Maru, ID#4004181 Template:Dead link.</ref>
Awa Maru (1943).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Awa Maru, ID#4049894.</ref>
Kaga Maru (19__).Template:Sfn
Noto Maru (1934).<ref>Peterson, Rick. Noto Maru, Hell ship</ref><ref>Miramar Ship Index: Noto Maru, ID#4039723.</ref>
Tango Maru (1905).Template:Sfn<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Tango Maru, ID#4009330.</ref>

Template:Col-5 Mountains
Asama Maru (1929).Template:Sfn<ref>Haworth, R.B. Miramar Ship Index: Asama Maru, ID#4035342.</ref>
Maya Maru (1925).Template:Sfn
Rokko Maru (1923).Template:Sfn

Template:Col-5 Cities
Asuka Maru (1924).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Asuka Maru, ID#4030494.</ref>
Calcutta Maru (1917).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Calcutta Maru, ID#4020373.</ref>
Dakar Maru (1920).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Dakar Maru, ID#4026933.</ref>
Durban Maru (1920).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Durban Maru, ID#4026431.</ref>
Hakone Maru (1921)<ref>Jordan 1931, p. 257</ref><ref>Miramar Ship Index: Hakone Maru, ID#4028453.</ref>
Lima Maru (1920).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Lima Maru, ID#4026947.</ref>
Lisbon Maru (1920).<ref>Sinking of Lisbon Maru; Miramar Ship Index: Lisbon Maru, ID#4027254.</ref>
Lyons Maru (1920).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Lyons Maru, ID#4026949.</ref>

Template:Col-5 Miscellaneous
Korea Maru (1901).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Korea Maru, ID#2161196.</ref>
Kyushu Maru (1862).<ref name="sl_nyk1"/>
Rosetta Maru (1900).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Siberia Maru (1901).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Siberia Maru, ID #2117179.</ref>
Taiyo Maru (1911).Template:Sfn
Toyama Maru (1915).<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Toyama Maru, ID#4018180.</ref>
Yoshida Maru (1941).<ref>ShipHistory: Yoshida Maru, April 26, 1944; Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Miramar Ship Index: Yoshida Maru, ID#4048724.</ref>

Template:Col-end

Fleet in post-war eraEdit

The modern NYK tonnage encompasses a variety of ship names.<ref name="sl_nyk1" /> Some names form series, as in those ships named after flowers, stars, star constellations, and provinces of pre-Meiji Japan.

{{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}}{{#ifeq:||}} Template:Col-begin Template:Col-5 Flowers
ACX Cherry (1994)<ref name="nykfleet">NYK: fleet list</ref>
ACX Hibiscus (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
ACX Jasmine (1996)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
ACX Lily (1990)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
ACX Magnolia (1998)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
ACX Marguerite (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
ACX Salvia (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Plumeria Leader (2022) Template:Col-5 Stars
Altair Leader (2011)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Altair (2010)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Canopus (1998)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Deneb (2007)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Rigel (2009)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Sirius (1998)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Vega (2006)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Rigel Leader (2011)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Template:Col-5 Constellations
Andromeda Leader (2007)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Aphrodite Leader (2007)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Apollon Leader (2007)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Aries Leader (2014)<ref name="ariesleader">New Car Carrier Aries Leader Delivered</ref>
Auriga Leader (2008)<ref name="aurigaleader">NYK-Nippon Oil Joint Project: The World First Solar-Powered Ship Sails Template:Webarchive</ref>
Cepheus Leader (2006)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Cetus Leader (2005)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Equuleus Leader (2005)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Antares (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Leo (2002)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Orion (2008)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Pegasus (2003)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Phoenix (2003)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
NYK Virgo (2007)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Volans Leader (2003)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Template:Col-5 Provinces
Iga Maru (1996)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Izu Maru (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Izumo Maru (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Kaga Maru (1988)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Sanuki Maru (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Settsu Maru (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Shima Maru (1997)<ref name="nykfleet"/> Template:Col-5 Miscellaneous
Asama Maru (1954)<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Asama Maru, ID#5026499.</ref>
Astoria Maru (1952)<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Astoria Maru, ID#5027572.</ref>
Galaxy Leader (2002)<ref>ShipPhotos, NYK: ship at Southampton, 2006;</ref><ref>Miramar Ship Index: Galaxy Leader, ID#9237307.Template:Dead link</ref>
Hakone Maru (1968)<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Hakone Maru, ID#6817194.</ref>
Hikawa Maru (1974)<ref>Miramar Ship Index: Hikawa Maru, ID#7380590.</ref>
Zeus Leader (2009)<ref name="nykfleet"/>
Template:Col-end

1950-presentEdit

File:Hikawa-maruYokohama.jpg

The NYK liner Hikawa Maru preserved at Naka-ku, Yokohama

By the mid-1950s NYK ships were again seen around the world.

As the demand for passenger ships dwindled in the 1960s, NYK expanded its cargo operation, running Japan's first container ship Hakone Maru on a route to California in 1968 and soon establishing container ship routes to many other ports. NYK became a partner in Nippon Cargo Airlines in 1978,

Following the enactment of the U.S. Shipping Act of 1984, NYK shifted its focus towards mass intermodal transportation, including: (1) enlarged container ships in the trade, (2) NYK owned/operated container terminals at the U.S. West Coast gateways, and (3) participation in US inland transportation by introducing the operation of mile-long Double Stack Trains (two-tier container freight train service across the U.S., in collaboration with U.S. railway companies)."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

NYK Line decided to enter the world-wide luxury cruise ship market and established Crystal Cruises Inc. in Los Angeles.

In July 1990 the first post-war cruise passenger ship Crystal Harmony has been completed (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki), and she marked the beginning of services of Crystal Cruises. (Los Angeles to Alaska and returned to San Francisco)<ref name=":0" /> The sister ship of Crystal Harmony, Crystal Symphony (built at Finland: Kvaerner Masa), commenced operation in Mediterranean cruises.<ref name=":0" /> The third ship of Crystal Cruises, Crystal Serenity (France: Chantiers de l'Atlantique), commenced operation in Europe.<ref name=":0" /> Crystal Harmony was sold from Crystal Cruises to NYK Cruises and began operation as Asuka II.<ref name=":0" /> Crystal Cruises was sold to Genting Hong Kong.<ref name=":0" />

In May 2021 NYK Line became the first Japanese shipping firm to join the Sustainable Shipping Initiative's Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative, which incorporates the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Car carrier Galaxy Leader.jpg

The NYK car carrier Galaxy Leader

On 19 November 2023, the NYK operated vessel Galaxy Leader, while sailing in Red Sea en route to India, was hijacked by the Iranian backed Houthi on the grounds it was an Israeli owned vessel. In May 2024 the owners asked the Houthis to release the crew.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Merger of container operationsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} On Monday, 31 October 2016, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Mitsui OSK Lines and Nippon Yusen Kaisha agreed to merge their container shipping business by establishing a completely new joint venture company. The integration included their overseas terminal activities. The joint venture company operates under the name "Ocean Network Express" (ONE), with the company headquarters in Japan (Tokyo), a global business operations headquarters in Singapore and regional headquarters in United Kingdom (London), United States (Richmond, VA), Hong Kong, and Brazil (São Paulo).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The new company started its operations on 1 April 2018.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Container vessels fleetEdit

File:NYK Virgo (8154929586).jpg

NYK Virgo

Container ship classes of NYK Line
Ship class	Built	Capacity (TEU)	Ships in class	Notes
NYK Vega-class	2006–2007	9,012	4	Operated by Ocean Network Express
NYK Oceanus-class	2007–2008	8,628–9,040	4	Operated by Ocean Network Express
NYK Adonis-class	2010–2011	9,592	3	Operated by Ocean Network Express
NYK Bird-class	2016–2019	14,000	15	Operated by Ocean Network Express

Roll-on/roll-off divisionEdit

File:Heritage Leader, Southampton.jpg

Heritage Leader vehicle carrier at Southampton

NYK is also the world's largest roll-on/roll-off ocean carrier. NYK's RORO fleet has a 660,000 car capacity which represents just over 17% of the global car transportation fleet capacity. Over 123 vessels are deployed worldwide transporting cars<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> manufactured in Japan, US, EU towards Asia, Middle East, North & South America,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Australia, Africa and Europe. In addition to brand new cars, High and Heavy cargo (such as excavators, mobile cranes, new and used trucks and buses, trailers, Mafi roll trailers) and break bulk static pieces are carried all over the globe by NYK.

File:Nippon Yusen Kaisha 1918 ad.png

Advertisement of Seattle, Washington sailings, March 1918

File:NYK art waves and cranes c1930s.jpg

Advertisement circa 1930s

File:NYK Line departure1935.jpg

Advertisement circa 1935