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In response to frequent complaints from foreign shipping lines on the high
port charges at Japanese ports, the Japanese government has announced that
it would take measures to reduce the cost of using its main ports by 30 to
40 per cent to arrest a dramatic drop in competitiveness.
Japanese ports - the most costly to use in Asia - have lost market share in
recent years to Asian rivals such as Pusan in South Korea and Kaohsiung in
Taiwan.
The decline in the international competitiveness of Japanese ports also
reflects the booming trade volumes between China, other Asian countries, the
US and Europe.
The transport ministry, which regulates Japan's ports, said it planned to
reduce the cost of using Japan's three main harbours of Tokyo-Yokohama,
Nagoya-Yokkaichi and Osaka-Kobe, which together handle about 80 per cent of
the country's international shipping.
The government plans to lower cargo unloading costs by about 30 per cent and
transform the ports into 24-hour hubs.
In recent years, rival ports in South Korea's Busan and Taiwan's Kaohsiung
have been gaining traffic in recent years because harbor costs there are
about 30 percent cheaper than those of Japanese ports. |
