News
Japan’s so-called strategic international ports handled more exports and imports in fiscal 2023 than in fiscal 2018, according to analysis findings made by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)’s Ports and Harbours Bureau.
The Ports and Harbours Bureau conducts a survey on export and import container movement to and from Japan every five years. The bureau surveyed all loaded marine containers for which customs declarations were made from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30, 2023 to figure out how shipments are exported from places of production in Japan to final countries of destination (consumption) and imported from overseas places of production to places of consumption in Japan.
As a result, the Ports and Harbours Bureau discovered that the strategic international ports—Keihin (Tokyo, Kawasaki and Yokohama) and Hanshin (Osaka and Kobe) ports—were responsible for 59.7% of oceangoing containerized shipments to and from Japan in fiscal 2023, an increase from 57.7% in fiscal 2018. In terms of volume, those to and from China, South Korea and others decreased, but those to and from India, Vietnam and others increased.
Hanshin and Keihin ports serve entire eastern and western Japan, respectively. The Ports and Harbours Bureau has pointed out that they both continued to work as key infrastructure to underpin Japan’s exports and imports.
