History[edit]

1870-1900[edit]

The company traces its history back to the Tsukumo Shokai shipping company founded by the Tosa clan in 1870. In 1875, as the renamed Mitsubishi Shokai, the company inaugurated Japan's first passenger liner service, with a route from Yokohama to Shanghai; in that same year, the company name was changed to Mitsubishi Mail Steamship Company. In 1885, a merger with Kyodo Unyu Kaisha (founded 1882) led to the adoption of the company's present name.^[6]

The merged company had a fleet of 58 steamships and expanded its operations rapidly, first to other Asian ports and then worldwide, with a line service to Seattle established in 1896^[7] and to London in 1899.^[6]

The company's Katori Maru was used by Chinese Muslims to travel to Singapore on their way to Makkah for the hajj in 1925. From there, the company had the pilgrims travel on board other Japanese steamships to Suez and then to Makkah. The company promised to take responsibility for all the necessary formalities and helped contact other local transportation agencies that could take the pilgrims to Makkah. Chinese pilgrims were promised a 20% discount for their tickets. A third-class ticket that sold for £5/10/0 would be £4/8/0, while a second-class ticket sold for £14/0/0 would be sold for £11/5/0.^[8]

1900-1945[edit]

The majority of Japanese merchant ships, tankers, and liners sailed under the NYK banner in this period. Regular services linked Kobe and Yokohama with South America, Batavia, Melbourne, and Cape Town, with frequent crossings to San Francisco and Seattle. Other routes connected local Chinese cabotage vessels on the Chinese coasts and upper Yangtze River.

Ocean routes went east from Japan to Vancouver (Canada) or Seattle. Another way was to stop in Hawaii, which continued to San Francisco and the Panama Canal. The next commercial routes were south from Japan, across the East China Sea. These went to Southeast Asia, the China coasts, and towards India and the Indian Ocean, to Europe or Batavia (Dutch Indies), or Australia and New Zealand. The fastest services took 10 days from Yokohama to Seattle, and one month to Europe.

Local sea routes connected 78 home seaports (38 open to foreign trade). Yokohama, Kobe, and Osaka had the greatest importance for trading with Japan. These ports had the third, fourth, and eighth place in net tonnage registered in the world. Coal passed from Moji to Osaka and Yokohama. Karafuto timber represented a third part of local trade. Soybean products from Dairen and Ryojun arrived at Yokohama. The sugarcane of the South Seas Mandate and Formosa, cotton, salt, and minerals represented other important parts of these transport transactions. In 1926, Toyo Kisen Line (TKK), with its fleet of nine ships, merged with NYK. The current funnel livery was introduced in 1929. The company also ran services connecting metropolitan Japan to its exterior provinces (Chosen, Karafuto, Kwantung, Formosa and South Mandate) of the Empire.

From 1924, all new cargo ships for NYK were motor ships.^[9] NYK introduced its first passenger motor ships in 1929, but continued to buy a mixture of steam and motor passenger ships until 1939.^[10]

In World War II, the NYK Line provided military transport and hospital ships for the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Many vessels were sunk by the Allied navies, and installations and ports were attacked from the air. Only 37 NYK ships survived the war. The company lost 185 ships in support of military operations in the Pacific.^[11] Before the war, NYK had 36 passenger ships;^[10] by the time of Japan's surrender only one, the motor ship Hikawa Maru, survived.^[12]

NYK's surviving vessels and equipment were confiscated by the Allied authorities as reparations, or taken by recently liberated Asian states in 1945-46. Shipping Control Authority for the Japanese Merchant Marine requisitioned Hikawa Maru as a transport ship to repatriate Japanese soldiers and civilians from territories that had been liberated from Japanese occupation.^[12]