Tag: Japan

The recently-launched Japanese container shipping venture Ocean Network Express (ONE) announced that it sees low-sulphur fuel oil as the most viable option for compliance with the 2020 sulphur cap, after having studied all the three popular options to comply with the regulation- LSFO, LNG and scrubbers. 

In a bid to deal with significant labor shortages, Japan has unveiled plans to expand its immigration bureau for accepting arrivals of more foreign workers, including unskilled laborers, to several fields including shipbuilding. In 2014, Japanese shipyards reported production delays, claiming workforce shortage. 

After spending more than three decades slaughtering whales in defiance of an international moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan is proposing a package of measures at an International Whaling Commission meeting next month that would effectively lift the global ban on for-profit whaling.

After the VLCC, Front Hakata, suffered an engine fire, near Chiba Prefecture, Japan, on August 5, it has now been towed, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Transport and Tourism informed. Namely, Front Hakata reported fire in the engine room, while it was waiting for berth at Chiba, being fully loaded with crude oil. 

In a bid to support the development of an Australian hydrogen industry, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has launched a funding round in late 2017 to accelerate innovation in the creation, transportation and transformation of hydrogen into energy at the point of use. 

At the EU-Japan summit in Tokyo, on July 17, the two parties signed the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. The trade agreement between two of the world's largest economies includes provisions that promise a free trade, something that ECSA welcomed in a statement.

In late June, the Japanese government granted a subsidy for a project developed by three Japanese firms earlier in 2018, aiming to support LNG bunkering in Tokyo Bay. The three companies, Uyeno, Sumitomo, and Yokohama-Kawasaki International Port, inked a MoU in March 2018.

A Japanese research partnership, comprising Japanese shipping company MOL, MOL Techno-Trade, National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology, and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (TUMSAT), aims at developing an advanced navigation support system. 

Central LNG Shipping Japan Corporation, a joint venture established by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Chubu Electric Power, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, has ordered an LNG bunkering vessel, the first to be operated in Japan.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs suspected a North Korean-flagged tanker that was lying alongside a small vessel of unknown nationality, in the East China Sea, to have been conducting illegal ship-to-ship transfers of goods, on May 19. Japan notified the Security Council Committee of this incident.