The report builds on and extends a previous report prepared by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust for WAVE in September 1996 and translated into Japanese by WAVE for use in the two international symposia of November 1996.
2. PORT ADMINISTRATION IN JAPAN AND CANADA, A COMPARISON
2 a. The Japanese Port System
Even short visits to ports such as Kitakyushu, Hakate, Kobe, Yokohama and Tokyo make it abundantly obvious to the observer how important they are to the Japanese economy and society. Reports such as those from the Japanese Ministry of Transport "Port Development Policy towards the 21st Century" underline the vital roles ports play and explain clearly the range of functions they have and the way they have been classified in accordance with those functions.
There is a total of 1,101 ports and harbours in Japan under the jurisdiction of the Port and Harbour Law, classified as follows;
・21 Specially Designated Major Ports which are especially important for promotion of foreign trade;
・112 Major Ports which play an important role in the national interest; and
・968 local ports.
In addition there are 2,950 fishing ports not administered under this law, and 68 other ports which have no particular designation.
Most of the specially designated major ports are concentrated around Japan's three largest bays (Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay, Osaka Bay) and the Seta Inland Sea while the major ports are scattered throughout the country.
About 7.4 million ships enter Japanese ports annually of which about 102,000 are ocean-going vessels, carrying almost 3.3 billion tons of cargo, including over 130 million tons of container cargo (1992). Of the billion tons of international cargo, approximately 19% is for export and 81% for import.
The largest Japanese ports such as Kobe, Chiba and Nagoya handle 130-170 million tons of cargo annually, placing them in the front rank of ports globally in terms of size.
Tokyo, Japan's premier international trade port, handles over 25 million tons of container cargo a year, as part of the 80 million tons of cargo transhipped.
