Introduction
The 1999 joint study, sponsored by the Japan Foundation, was conducted by WAVE and the Global Trade, Transportation, and Logistics Studies Program at the University of Washington in Seattle. Interviews were held between December 6th and 22nd in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe, Shimonoseki, and Kitakyushu. The author of this report would like to express his sincere gratitude to all members of WAVE as well as to the hosts and the people interviewed in the terminals, port authorities, and ministries visited. The time spent by these people and the efforts they expended, contributed considerably to the outcome of this report.
In this rapidly changing era of global exchange, Japan's national government is under political and economic pressure to make their port's marine terminal operations more efficient, user-friendly, and more competitive with other ports in East Asia. In 1998, Japan's Administrative Reform Council's Deregulation Subcommittee stressed the importance of an efficient distribution system as the basis for economic revival and improved economic efficiencies to better meet user needs at Japanese ports. A Harbor Transport Subcommittee was charged with developing recommendations to deregulate, modernize, and revitalize Japan's harbor transport industry while improving efficiency through competition.1 An advisory panel to the transport minister recommended that deregulatory steps should be implemented in several stages, starting with Tokyo and moving on through Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and four other major ports. This move, which opens the stevedoring industry to competition, is aimed at halting the decline of Japanese ports, which have been losing container trade to other Asian ports, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. According to ministry officials, close to 5OO stevedoring firms out of about 1,000 operate in nine ports that handle about 95 percent of the country's container cargo.2 Along with this, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) is working towards the development of container terminals for foreign trade to expedite imports, as well as the development of terminals for domestic trade. This includes the construction of deep-water container terminals, which are vital as bases for international shipping networks and their strategic location to cut the costs of physical distribution.3
The world is moving towards a more open trading system in many economies and according to economic forecasts by McGraw Hill DRI, global trade is expected to double in the next 15-20 years providing more opportunities for all. In this new era of global expansion, new information technologies are having a great impact on the movement of goods and materials from points of origin to destination. The requirements of JIT (just in time) deliveries and now electronic commerce are making logistics and supply-chain management very important. The problem facing most container ports is that of improving throughput at a reasonable price. This must be looked at as improving the connections or “links” in the supply chain. Information and communications is the key to improved throughput. The new technologies, GPS, ITS, the Internet, and the world-wide-web, are the tools available to improve information flows. The rate of adoption of these tools must be given greater attention by Japanese and American ports. This is not an easy task for many because it impacts institutional arrangements.
