A brief history of Japan's modern shipbuilding industry Japan's modern shipbuilding industry began in the 1850s and developed rapidly during the First World War.

Merchant ship output was 49,000 gross tons in 1915, and increased to 610,000 gross tons in 1919, ranking third in the world after the United Kingdom and the United States.

From 1914 to 1922, Japan built 64 ships and 70,000 tons of warships.

After the war, the shipbuilding industry declined sharply, and expanded again after 1934. In 1944, there were 60 large and medium-sized shipyards, more than 140 slipways, and nearly 400,000 employees. The ship production that year reached 374 ships and a total of 408,000 tons.

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1. Postwar Restoration Phase (1945~1959) After World War II, Japan, as a defeated country, was subject to political and economic restrictions, and ship production stopped for a time.

In the first two years after the war, the Japanese shipbuilding industry, as the arms industry, was taken over by the U.S. authorities. Four naval shipyards were disbanded, and other shipyards also closed down and downsized.

From 1946 to 1949, the output was only 100,000 tons.

After 1947, the United States began to relax its policy toward Japan, relaxing restrictions on shipbuilding, and helping to restore and develop the shipbuilding industry by ordering ships from Japanese shipyards and investing in Japan.

In this way, with the support of the United States, Japan took advantage of the favorable opportunity after the war when a large number of ships were needed at home and abroad. By virtue of its low wages and good shipbuilding industry foundation, it developed rapidly.

However, at that time, Japan was inferior to Western Europe in terms of shipbuilding capabilities, technical level and marine supporting industry, and its competitiveness in building export ships was weak.

After entering the 1950s, Japan continued to improve its shipbuilding technology and increase the automation and rationalization of equipment, making it increasingly competitive in building export ships.

After the establishment of the Coast Guard (the predecessor of the Maritime Self-Defense Force) in 1952, the shipbuilding industry began to recover.

To this end, the Japanese shipbuilding industry responded positively: recruiting former naval technicians with rich shipbuilding experience to return to their old careers, establishing a ship design association, collecting a large amount of relevant information, conducting research on ship theory and design, and publishing the research results

Provided to the Defense Agency.

In 1953, Japanese shipyards built 16 ships for the Coast Guard (including 5 guard ships and 7 large ships), with a total weight of 9,330 tons and a construction cost of 11.6 billion yen.

In April 1956, Japan's first domestically produced frigate "Harmikaze" was built at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Nagasaki Shipyard.

The volume of merchant ships launched that year reached 1.75 million gross tons, surpassing the United Kingdom for the first time and ranking first in the world.

In 1958, the Maritime Self-Defense Force began to implement the first defense development plan.

From 1958 to 1960, according to the requirements of the plan, 26 ships totaling 23,620 tons were built, with a total construction cost of approximately 27.6 billion yen.

2. Rapid development stage (1960~1974) The 1960s was a stage of rapid development of the Japanese shipbuilding industry.

In response to the market demand for large oil tankers, dual-purpose ships, and container ships at that time, Japan accelerated equipment investment and continued to expand shipbuilding capabilities.

The amount of equipment investment from 1962 to 1965 was 77.7 billion yen, and from 1965 to 1971, the cumulative amount reached 203 billion yen. In 10 years, the shipbuilding capacity expanded by 3 to 4 times.

In 1962, the number of merchant ships launched was 2.183 million gross tons (accounting for approximately 26.1% of the world's total merchant ship launches). In 1971, it increased to 11.992 million gross tons (accounting for approximately 50% of the world's total launched volumes). Ship production increased by 4.5% in 10 years.

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This period is the period when the Maritime Self-Defense Force is implementing the second and third defense development plans.

From 1962 to 1966, Japan built 31 ships, totaling 42,052 tons, with a total construction cost of 42.3 billion yen.

In 1967, Japan proposed to promote the modernization and localization of weapons and equipment and improve its rear support capabilities.

From 1967 to 1971, 45 ships with a total weight of more than 50,000 tons were built.

In the early 1970s, Japan built a 4,700-ton helicopter destroyer and a 1,800-ton teardrop-shaped submarine. Especially the destroyer that could carry three anti-submarine helicopters attracted the attention of all countries at the time.

3. Structural transformation stage (1975~1989) Beginning in the mid-1970s, due to the impact of the world oil crisis, Japan's merchant ship output dropped sharply (from 17.5 million gross tons in 1973 to 5.03 million gross tons in 1979, a decline

71%).

During this period, the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Fourth Defense Plan (1972~1976) was not completed on schedule. The original plan was to build 54 ships with a total capacity of approximately 69,000 tons. In fact, only 37 ships with a capacity of approximately 50,000 tons were built.

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After a short-term recovery in 1979, the Japanese shipbuilding industry fell into depression again in 1982. Coupled with the appreciation of the yen and the emergence of emerging competitive forces such as South Korea, the Japanese shipbuilding industry was in a difficult situation.

The mid-term defense plan from 1986 to 1990 called for the construction of 35 ships of approximately 69,000 tons, which promoted the development of the Japanese shipbuilding industry.

From 1996 to 2000, the Japanese government formulated and is implementing the "Medium-term Defense Force Development Plan."