Japanese ports handled a total of 23.49 million TEUs of international and domestic containers in 2018 (January-December), setting a new yearly record, announced on July 3 by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). Containers to and from other economies grew 2.7% to 18.9 million TEUs and those to and from other domestic ports, up 4.3% to 4.6 million TEUs, reaching all-time highs for two and seven years in a row, respectively. Fruit had been produced in the efforts being made as part of the international strategic container port policies that Tokyo is advancing, such as intensively processing containers at international strategic ports and expanding feeder service networks.
By port, international containers to and from Tokyo swelled 1.2% to 5.11 million TEUs, holding the largest share of the pie. Ranked second were those to and from Yokohama, which improved 3.7% to 3.04 million TEUs. Finishing in third place, containers to and from Kobe grew 0.7% to 2.94 million TEUs. The fourth-busiest port was Nagoya, which processed 2.88 million TEUs, up 3.3%. Nagoya was followed by Osaka, to and from which 2.41 million TEUs were moved, up 3.7%. Container throughput improved at all of the top five ports. As for other ports, Shimizu handled 567,000 TEUs, up 4.8%, moving up from ninth to eighth, and 147,000 TEUs were carried to and from Kawasaki, up 13.6%, helping the port clime from 18th to 16th.
