The Council for Transport Technology (CTT) submitted its report in response to Inquiry No. 18 of the Minister of Transport on the"Basis of Develoment of Ship Technology in Preparation for a New Era"on December 1, 1993. The council identified 27 priority areas for technological development, and provided implementation guidelines. The report called for the comprehensive encouragement of R&D efforts under what the council calls the "Challenge Ship 21 Plan," which includes (1) safety of ships, (2) conservation of the global environment(marine environment), and (3) advancement of ship technology and development of new areas of demand.

　

　In a supplementary opinion presented by The Council for the Rationalization of Shipping and Shipbuilding Industries (CRSSI) on December 17, 1997, it was pointed out that the efficiency of R&D activities should be improved by concentrating available resources in priority areas. The report responding to Inquiry No.22 was submitted to the Minister of Transport by the CTT on March 24, 1998, in which the following points were stressed. A co-operative system between the government, industry and academia should be set up, under which the government would play a leading role in the co-ordination of roles played by the participating parties, and an efficient and effective R&D structure should thereby be established.

　Subsequently, the"Study Session on Strategy Concerning Technology for National Industries"launched in October 1999 pointed out that the strategy for the innovation of shipbuilding technology should be formulated by mobilizing the intelligence and expertise of the government, industry and academia, and in the framework of the "Strategy Concerning Technology for National Industries" finalized on April 1, 2000 the "Strategy Concerning Technology for the Shipbuilding Industry"was spelled out, indicating the desirable orientation of the joint efforts of the three parties for further sophistication of shipbuilding technology Furthermore, in April 2001, the MLIT 's Ship Research Institute, the core body of ship-related technological development in Japan, was reorganized into an independent administrative institution by the name of the National Maritime Research Institute in order to play a vital role in joint research activities carried out by the government, industry and academia.

　It is against this background that Japan is now actively committed to R&D activities as detailed below to adequately meet public concerns regarding ship technology.

　In response to growing public concern about safety and the environment today, the requirements for the safety and reliability of ships are becoming ever more stringent. At the same time, with a view to making the Japanese industry more competitive, there is an active demand to make marine transport more efficient by increasing the speed of fleet operation, reducing operation cost and ensuring punc- tual operation.

　With the objective of achieving a major breakthrough in enhancing the safety of fleet operation and the efficiency of marine physical distribution, an R&D project on an Advanced Ship Safety Management System was launched in fiscal 2001, intended to improve maintenance work by remotely monitoring and diagnosing from onshore the conditions of the propulsion plant and other machinery and providing adequate support by utilizing the latest tools of IT.

　Crew sizes have decreased on account of automation and manpower saving in ship operation systems, resulting in even greater importance of R&D to ensure safe ship operation. In view of this, an intelligent ship R&D project was undertaken in the 1980s, and in the course of this study elemental technologies were established for the realization of a ship operation system which could achieve automation without compromising on safety. This was followed by continued active R&D efforts, resulting in a support system available for practical use, which could ensure safe ship operation, even by a very small crew.

　Decreased crew sizes nowadays resulting from automation and manpower saving in ship operation systems are making it increasingly difficult for crews to take charge of maintenance, inspection and gauging of the hull, main engine and other equipment while at sea. This means new approaches must be undertaken including the use of maintenance-free machinery and equipment on board. To this end, a study on a highly reliable marine propulsion plant has been carried out since 1989. The plant was supposed to achieve a dramatic improvement in reliability and at the same time provide superior performance features to the current standards, including improved thermal efficiency The project bore fruit in the first advanced diesel engines mounted on a large hydrographic survey ship, which entered into service in March 1998.

　

　In line with the advent of increasingly faster ships, the establishment of evaluation methods for ship safety in high-speed operation has come to be required. R&D work is carried out by the National Maritime Research Institute and universities to develop fast operation simulating techniques to assess the safety of navigation in congested waters or during the automatic operation of ships.

　As global environmental problems have become a cause for concern in recent years, the reduction of air-polluting emissions such as NOx from ships has become a major requirement. On the other hand, to attract and secure manpower for the coasting fleet, improved living and working conditions on board are also required. To overcome these problems, an R&D project on the next generation of marine gas turbines, the Super Marine Gas Turbine(SMGT), began in fiscal 1997 to develop a low NOx but high-power marine propulsion plant that requires no on-board maintenance, has reduced noise and vibration levels, and excels in fuel efficiency.

　An R&D project was launched in fiscal 2001 to develop a revolutionary coastal ship, which would embody a technical breakthrough in meeting certain requirements of coastwise shipping such as reducing the burden on the environment and the logistics costs and improving the living and working conditions on board. More specifically, a new hull design in combination with gas turbines and a highly efficient electrical propulsion system featuring a contra-rotating podded propeller are being developed. In fiscal 2005, the final year of the project, an actual revolutionary coastal vessel will be built for demonstration tests. Once this vessel, with its reduced burden on the environment and reduced operating costs, dramatically reduced noise and vibration levels, and requiring no on-board maintenance, becomes available for commercial service, it is expected to contribute to revitalizing coastwise shipping and the progress of modal shift from trucking to waterborne transport, which would mean a substantial reducing of the burden on the environment.

　With the aim of addressing the potential environmental problems posed by the offshore discarding of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) craft and the sinking of abandoned craft and at the same time meeting the public requirements for creating a highly eco-friendly society and effective utilization of resources, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) has been implementing since fiscal 2000 a project on a Sophisticated Recycling System for Disused FRP Craft with a view to realizing a commercially operable plant that is highly economical and useful for the recycling of the materials of such craft. More specifically, the project is intended 1)to establish recycling technology for the crushed pieces of discarded FRP craft to be used as a raw material for cement and the like, and 2) to make only the deteriorated or damaged parts of FRP craft replaceable, thereby making the hulls themselves last longer.

　The wreck of the Russian-flag tanker Nakhodka and the resultant heavy oil spill in January 1997 in the Sea of Japan caused serious damage to the marine environment and fisheries along the Japanese coastline of the Sea of Japan. The disaster was an unfortunate and alarming reminder of the importance marine environment conservation and provision against oil spills. Arrangements for spilt oil skimming then available in Japan were only effective against low-viscosity oil under calm sea conditions. Not technology for the recovery of high-viscosity oil from rough sea surfaces had been developed. This was a serious impediment to being able to successfully cope with this kind of disaster. Not to allow this kind of problem to be repeated, an R&D project on a recovery system for high-viscosity heavy oil under rough sea conditions was launched in fiscal 1998 as part of a comprehensive program against oil spills, and was successfully completed in fiscal 2000.

　Energy conservation technology is of particular importance to the ongoing attempts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which are one of the main causes of global warming, and to more efficiently utilize fossil energy whose supply is limited. In the shipbuilding industry, R&D initiatives regarding energy saving technology have been under way for years to reduce the costs of fleet operation. For instance, the efficiency of propulsion plans including diesel engines has improved remarkably through years of continuous R&D work, and technology for the recovery of energy in the wake with a contra-rotating propeller (CRP) or a propeller boss-cap fin has been developed in recent years with substantial energy conservation effects.

　Development of new demand areas in Japan has more or less concentrated in waterfront areas, with the result that shallow water areas, particularly bays and inland seas, are already being utilized to the maximum. Accordingly, the development of farther offshore sites is indispensable to meet the increasing requirements for social overhead capital in the future. However, these waters may be too deep or the surface layer of the seabed may be too soft for routine construction work to be carried out. In order to overcome these adverse conditions and supplement conventional technology, R&D on an ultra-large floating structure(Mega-Float)started in fiscal 1995.

　The Mega-Float R&D project aims at establishing basic technology necessary for the construction of ultra-large floating structures with a length of a few kilometres and durability for a very long period through verification tests at sea. Various verification tests on the structure and simulation programmes were conducted using an experimental floating structure completed In July 1996, measuring 300m in length and 60m in width. In 1997, the basic technology was established, which is needed for designing and building general-purpose Mega-Floats usable as logistics depots and for other purposes.

　In fiscal 1997, a survey on the possible use of a Mega-Float as an airport was conducted, and the feasibility of the Mega-Float airport was investigated by identifying the technical problems involved and conceivable solutions thereto. Research on the supposed specific use of the Mega-Float was commenced in fiscal 1998 as a three-year programme. In August 1998, a floating airport model of 1,000m in length was constructed under the programme, and put to practical tests to determine its possible use as a disaster rescue centre and for take-off/landing trials of actual aircraft in September and October 1998, respectively. A study on safety and reliability assessment methods for the Mega-Float was also carried out. These surveys and studies led to the conclusion that a huge Mega-Float airport with a 4,000m class strip could remain in useful service for 100 years or even longer.

　The R&D project for the Techno Superliner (TSL) was conducted over seven years from 1989 till 1995 to meet the need for high-speed transport in this changing socio-economic environment, where manufacturers are seeking increasingly higher added value for their products and locating production bases over wider geographical areas. This project was intended to develop an ultra-high-speed vessel capable of carrying 1,000 tons of cargo at 50 knots over a range of more than 500 nautical miles with sufficient seaworthiness to ride out rough seas. The fundamental ship design and building technology were established through research work until 1994. Comprehensive sea trials using large model ships were carried out in 1995 as the final R&D phase, and the operational technology and the high-speed marine transport system using the TSL were demonstrated to complete the seven-year R&D project successfully.

　In fiscal 1996, the Ministry of Transport carried out a comprehensive investigation to support commercial application of the TSL, and identified the problems to be solved for feasible commercialization based on proposals from the private sector. The model ship used for tests was converted into a car ferry-cum-rescue ship in 1997 following comprehensive sea trials.

　If and when the TSL enters commercial service, it will contribute to developing a more highly sophisticated network of shipping and logistics activities as well as the vitalization of local economies.

　

　Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is expected to become a powerful tool for research in ship technology in the future, and to this end, studies on CFD are actively carried out at the National Maritime Research Institute and various universities.

　Shipbuilding companies, on the other hand, have been conducting studies to develop a computer-integrated manufacturing system (CIMS) for shipbuilding, which will integrate information at every stage of the shipbuilding process from order acceptance to actual construction. Moreover, the study began from fiscal 1997 on a highly-advanced CIMS for common use of shipbuilding expertise among different shipbuilding companies.

　The Japanese archipelago has traditionally relied heavily on passenger transport by sea, which consequently requires steady operation through improved seaworthiness and greater convenience through higher speed. To meet this need, shipbuilding companies are making active efforts to develop small highspeed craft, many of which have successively entered commercial service in recent years.