To revitalize Japan’s shipbuilding industry, the ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism officially announced on December 26 the “Shipbuilding Industry Revitalization Roadmap,” which outlines the shipbuilding production capacity targets by 2035.
In this roadmap, the ministry has set a goal of increasing the domestic shipbuilding capacity from 9 million gross tons to 18 million gross tons by 2035 and has summarized specific initiatives to achieve this.
The roadmap proposes specific measures focusing on strengthening the resilience of the shipbuilding system.
The Japanese ministry has identified five pillars for the domestic future shipbuilding development: strengthening the resilience of the shipbuilding system, securing and developing human resources related to the shipbuilding industry, achieving industry transformation through decarbonization and other means, ensuring stable newbuilding demand, and collaboration with like-minded countries.
To achieve this goal, the study group for the revitalization of the shipbuilding industry considered comprehensive public and private investment measures.
The ministry believes that it is essential to “drastically” improve the current production capacity through large-scale investments. It plans to increase capacity by further improving and upgrading infrastructure, and by developing automation technology to enhance construction efficiency.
While the construction volume has been declining in recent years amid fierce competition with China and South Korea, the global shipbuilding market sees expanding future possibilities, including demand for next-generation ships such as zero-emission ships.
In a press conference on Dec. 26, the minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism Yasushi Kaneko said to reporters that he visited in November one of Japan’s largest shipyards.
Through this visit it became clear that in order to compete with China and South Korea, Japan needs to maximize its production capacity.
Regarding the question of whether it is possible to achieve the goal of doubling Japan’s annual shipbuilding production capacity, the minister said the target set this time is very ambitious, and it can be achieved if the public and private sectors work together.
