Nippon Yusen

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha

US$ 16.5 billion) — FY 2019
Net income	JP¥ 60.3 billion (US$ 543.4 million) — FY 2019
Number of employees	35,711 (as of March 31, 2019)
Website	Official website
Footnotes / references [2][3][4][5]

NYK Line container

NYK Maritime Museum and NYK's Yokohama

branch

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^[7] and to London in 1899.^[6]

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.^[8]

1900-1945

The majority of Japanese merchant ships, tankers, and liners sailed under the NYK banner in this period. Regular services linked

Ocean routes went east from Japan to

From 1924, all new cargo ships for NYK were motor ships.^[9] NYK introduced its first passenger motor ships in 1929, but continued to buy a mixture of steam and motor passenger ships until 1939.^[10]

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.^[11] Before the war, NYK had 36 passenger ships;^[10] by the time of Japan's surrender only one, the motor ship Hikawa Maru, survived.^[12]

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.^[12]

Fleet until 1945

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.^[13]

Amongst the many ships in the early NYK fleet, some names comprise serial categories.^[14] 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.

Fleet in post-war era

The modern NYK tonnage encompasses a variety of ship names.

1950-present

Head office of NYK Line (日本郵船) at Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan

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

NYK revived its passenger ship business in 1989 with cruise ships operated by its newly formed subsidiary Crystal Cruises.

In 1990 NYK resumed passenger services under its own name when

In April 2014, eight container sister ships of a new series were commissioned, and two more units were inserted as options in the construction contract. Both options were converted into firm orders in July 2014. The building began in spring 2015 at the shipyard Japan Marine United in Kure, Hiroshima. The first delivered ship of the ten units to be built within end of 2018, was mv NYK Blue Jay launched in 2016.^[68] All 10 vessels received names of bird species (therefore called the NYK-bird class). The ships are used on the European Far East route and are the largest container ships built in Japan so far, having a maximum container capacity of 14,026 TEU.

In May 2021 NYK Line became the first Japanese shipping firm to join the

On Monday, 31 October 2016,

NYK Virgo

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^[72] manufactured in Japan, US, EU towards Asia, Middle East, North & South America,^[73] 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,

Advertisement of Seattle, Washington sailings, March 1918

Advertisement circa 1930s

Advertisement circa 1935