Following the Second World War, Japan’s shipbuilding industry grew to lead the world shipbuilding market by 1956. Previous research has found that Japan’s shipbuilding industry dominated the world market by surpassing its Western rivals in the field of large‒tanker construction. However, the growth of the global shipbuilding market between 1956 and the oil crisis of 1973 did not rest consistently on demand for tankers, and the same was true of Japan’s shipbuilding industry.
It is certain that Japan’s shipbuilding industry acquired a large share of the global tanker‒construction market, notably comprising over half the market during the large‒tanker construction boom of the early 1970s. However, this does not reflect the reality of the industry as a whole. During the rapid‒growth period, Japan’s seven major shipbuilding companies accounted for an overwhelming portion of gross tonnage, and their dominance of Japanese tanker construction was especially high, exceeding 80 percent at peak. There is no doubt that Japan’s shipbuilding industry developed through the construction of large tankers. Nevertheless, this was true only of the industry’s seven major companies.
This study takes a new look at Japan’s shipbuilding industry, focusing on the number of ships built rather than on gross tonnage. At the time, almost half the total number of vessels built in Japan were in the under‒500 gross tonnage category and were used for coastal shipping in Japan itself. The second largest number were vessels in the 2,000~3,999 gross tonnage class, used to import South Sea timber from Southeast Asia. Timber accounted for the third largest volume of Japanese imports by cargo vessel in the 1960s, following iron ore and coal. Thus, Japan had a domestic demand for vessel construction that was distinct from the large‒tanker demand met by the seven major shipbuilders. This demand was not occasional or temporary but lasted throughout the rapid growth period.
In the early 1970s, just before the oil crisis, the shipbuilding industry in Japan included many companies besides the seven major firms. The reason so many shipbuilders could coexist was because of the new shipbuilding markets in which smaller firms did not have to compete with the leading shipbuilders. Today, with the leading companies shrinking or withdrawing from the industry, it appears that the multi‒layered structure of the Japanese shipbuilding industry that developed at that time provided the basis for the new companies now replacing the earlier dominant firms in leading the industry.
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