Southern Japan News

Japanese-Australian venture producing hydrogen from brown coal is set to ship its maiden cargo on the world's first liquid hydrogen carrier from near Melbourne to Kobe on Friday, in a test delayed by nearly a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.The Suiso Frontier, built by Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), arrived on Friday from Kobe, in southern Japan, following a longer trip than the expected 16 days as the owners sought to avoid bad weather and rough seas, said a spokesperson for the venture…

A Japanese submarine and a commercial vessel were involved in a crash off the Pacific coast on Monday and three of the submarine’s crew suffered minor injuries and it was slightly damaged but still able to sail, government officials said.The submarine, operated by the Maritime Self-Defense Force, as Japan’s navy is known, and the ship crashed off Kochi prefecture in southern Japan, chief cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a regular news conference.Kato, quoting the Coast Guard, said that there was no damage to the private ship.Authorities were looking into details, such as the type of the ship and in which country it was registered, Kato said.The Maritime Self-Defense Force said three crew members on the submarine suffered minor injuries and the vessel’s mast was damaged but not enough

The Costa Atlantica cruise ship, which docked in southern Japan with over 100 crew members testing positive for COVID-19, has left the country and is en route to the Philippines, local government officials said on Monday.The ship departed Nagasaki on Sunday over a month after it became the second virus-stricken cruise ship to dock in Japan. Lax control on the movement of crew whilst docked highlighted Japan’s patchy response to the pandemic.The 86,000 tonne Costa Atlantica docked for maintenance in late April carrying no passengers and 623 crew, most of whom were eventually quarantined inside the ship after 149 tested positive.Six remain hospitalised in a non-life-threatening condition…

Seven days before Japan quarantined a cruise ship near Tokyo early this year, in what became one of the first coronavirus hot spots outside China, another cruise ship docked in southern Japan.For the next five weeks, as the virus took hold in Japan and the Diamond Princess in Yokohama port grabbed global attention, the Japanese authorities issued no warnings to the Costa Atlantica 1,200 km (750 miles) to the southwest.Passengers from the Yokohama ship were dying while people from the other vessel freely got on and off…

Oil that reached islands in southern Japan earlier this month is highly likely to have come from the sunken Iranian tanker Sanchi, the Japan Coast Guard said on Thursday. Samples of oily matter that washed up on Feb. 8 on the shores of the Okinoerabu and Yoron islands in the Amami chain were found to be linked to the Sanchi's sinking, the Coast Guard said. The Sanchi sank on Jan. 14 after colliding with a freighter on Jan. 6 in the world's worst oil tanker disaster in decades.

Clumps of oil have washed up on the shores of southern Japan and there are fears they may be leaking from an Iranian crude tanker than sank in the world's worst such disaster in decades, the Japanese Coast Guard said on Friday. Black clumps have reached the shores of the island of Amami-Oshima, a coast guard official told Reuters by phone. Authorities are checking to see if it is from the Sanchi (IMO:9356608) tanker that sank in the East China Sea last month, after being alerted to its presence by the public. The government had set up a special unit within Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office to coordinate Japan's response to the latest development, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

A Chinese military ship entered the waters of south-western Japan on Wednesday, EFE news reported quoting government officials. This is the first such incident in over a decade and comes a week after a Chinese navy ship sailed near the disputed Senkaku islands. Ap reported Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko as saying that a Maritime Self-Defense Force plane spotted the ship in Japanese waters west of Kuchinoerabu island in southern Japan before dawn. The ship sailed out of Japan's waters about 90 minutes later. “The government will continue to take all possible measures for warning and surveillance activity for our territorial waters and airspace,” Seko said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida warned against China's increasing maritime activities, such as artificial land construction in the South China Sea, reports Nikkei. Referring to tensions over China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, Fumio said that Japan will step up efforts to ensure the rule of law for "open and stable seas." He pledged to work for a further improvement of ties with Beijing. "A number of countries have expressed grave concerns about unilateral actions that change the status quo and escalate tensions," Kishida said in a foreign policy address. "Any unilateral attempts, such as land reclamation, to create an accomplished fact cannot be accepted," Kishida said.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, Japan's biggest steelmaker, may start talks on a contract to transport iron ore from Brazilian miner Vale on Valemax ships, the world's biggest bulk carriers, to cut costs, a senior official said. Such a contract would be a boost for Vale, which is trying to increase use of the ships after China in 2012 prevented the world's biggest iron ore miner from docking the giant vessels in its ports to protect its own shipping companies. The 400,000 deadweight tonne (dwt) vessels could cut Nippon Steel's shipping costs by at least $400,000 on each cargo.

One major new development on the Northern Sea Route is the interest in using it to move liquefied natural gas to energy-hungry Asian markets, writes Stan Jones of the Office of the Federal Coordinator, Alaska Natural Gas in a recent article. Late last year, the LNG carrier Ob River hauled the first LNG cargo over the route, from Norway to Kyushu Electric Power in Tobata, in southern Japan. The icebreaker-escorted trip, from the Snohvit LNG terminal in Hammerfest, took 27 days, and that was in November and December, late in the season.

For First Time and Verifies Over 5% Fuel Efficiency Improvement - Sights On Expanded System Applications to High-speed, Slender Hull-form Ships. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has installed its innovative "Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System" (MALS) for the first time on a ferry - a ship with a slender hull form* - and confirmed over 5% improvement in fuel consumption. MALS is MHI's proprietary technology that reduces frictional resistance between the ship hull and seawater by introducing a layer of air bubbles blown from the ship's bottom.

Japanese Coast Guard said it has received a message that a Hong Kong cargo ship with 17 crew members on board has not been in contact with owners while in waters off southern Japan. According to the report, the 4,143-ton freighter, NEW LUCKY VII, with 17 crew members including three Chinese sailors and 14 Indonesian sailors on board stopped regular communication with its owner company in waters about 100 kilometers west off the Amami Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture. The cargo ship was sailing from Papua New Guinea to China. The coast guard received a request for a search operation from Hong Kong authorities, despatching several patrol vessels and an airplane to search for the cargo ship.

The engine, an MAN B&W 6S46MC-C8 type capable of an output of almost 7 MW, was constructed in autumn 2010 by Hitachi Zosen Corporation at its Ariake works in southern Japan. The engine is bound for a general cargo carrier, to be built at the Nakai shipyard and scheduled to enter active service later this year. The vessel was ordered by Japanese customer,  BOT Lease Co. Ltd., and is operated by Nissho Shipping Co. Ltd. The first engine-start took place in January 2011. In connection with this…

Forbes reported that a Japanese military submarine collided with a civilian vessel during exercises in waters off southern Japan . The Maritime Self-Defense Forces submarine grazed against an unidentified civilian cargo ship during surfacing exercises about 30 miles off the southeastern coast of Miyazaki on Japan's southern island of Kyushu, according to the repot. No injuries were reported among crew members of the submarine Asashio, but officials have found a dent in the vessel's topside. It is said that the submarine apparently hit the vessel's hull while surfacing. The number of crew members and the direction the submarine was heading could not be released The vessel might not have noticed the incident due to the minor impact, he added. source: Forbes

Japan's Defense Ministry is probing a suspected leak onto the Internet of navy data, including some confidential information. The incident came to light when a navy inspection team spotted a message on an Internet bulletin board that suggested internal navy documents had been leaked. After a subsequent investigation, the ministry has determined that various documents, including some related to communications and training, may have been leaked. China Daily reported that the leaked material included cipher-related documents, personal data on dozens of navy personnel and documents on the planning of military exercises. The information is believed to have leaked from a virus-infected computer belonging to a crew member on the Asayuki…