1870-1900 The company traces its history back to the
Tsukumo Shokai shipping company founded by the
Tosa clan in 1870. In 1875, as the renamed
Mitsubishi Shokai, the company inaugurated Japan's first
passenger liner service, with a route from
Yokohama to
Shanghai; in that same year, the company name was changed to Mitsubishi Mail Steamship Company. In 1885, a merger with
Kyodo Unyu Kaisha (founded 1882) led to the adoption of the company's present name. The merged company had a fleet of 58
steamships and expanded its operations rapidly, first to other Asian ports and then worldwide, with a line service to
Seattle established in 1896 and to
London in 1899.
1900-1945 The majority of Japanese merchant ships, tankers, and liners sailed under the NYK banner in this period. Regular services linked
Kobe and
Yokohama with South America,
Batavia,
Melbourne, and
Cape Town, with frequent crossings to
San Francisco and
Seattle. Other routes connected local Chinese
cabotage vessels on the Chinese coasts and upper
Yangtze River. Ocean routes went east from Japan to
Vancouver (Canada) or Seattle. Another way was to stop in
Hawaii, which continued to San Francisco and the
Panama Canal. The next commercial routes were south from Japan, across the
East China Sea. These went to Southeast Asia, the China coasts, and towards India and the Indian Ocean, to Europe or Batavia (
Dutch Indies), or
Australia and
New Zealand. The fastest services took 10 days from Yokohama to Seattle, and one month to Europe. Local sea routes connected 78 home seaports (38 open to foreign trade). Yokohama, Kobe, and Osaka had the greatest importance for trading with Japan. These ports had the third, fourth, and eighth place in net tonnage registered in the world. Coal passed from
Moji to Osaka and Yokohama.
Karafuto timber represented a third part of local trade.
Soybean products from
Dairen and
Ryojun arrived at Yokohama. The
sugarcane of the
South Seas Mandate and
Formosa, cotton, salt, and minerals represented other important parts of these transport transactions. In 1926, Toyo Kisen Line (TKK), with its fleet of nine ships, merged with NYK. The current funnel livery was introduced in 1929. The company also ran services connecting metropolitan Japan to its exterior provinces (
Chosen,
Karafuto,
Kwantung,
Formosa and
South Mandate) of the Empire. From 1924, all new cargo ships for NYK were
motor ships. NYK introduced its first passenger motor ships in 1929, but continued to buy a mixture of steam and motor passenger ships until 1939. In World War II, the NYK Line provided military transport and
hospital ships for the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Many vessels were sunk by the
Allied navies, and installations and ports were attacked from the air. Only 37 NYK ships survived the war. The company lost 185 ships in support of military operations in the Pacific. Before the war, NYK had 36 passenger ships; by the time of
Japan's surrender only one, the motor ship
Hikawa Maru, survived. NYK's surviving vessels and equipment were confiscated by the Allied authorities as
reparations, or taken by recently liberated Asian states in 1945-46.
Shipping Control Authority for the Japanese Merchant Marine requisitioned
Hikawa Maru as a transport ship to repatriate Japanese soldiers and civilians from territories that had been liberated from Japanese occupation. Amongst the many ships in the early NYK fleet, some names comprise serial categories. Some ships were named after
Shinto shrines, and others were named after ancient
provinces of Japan,
cities of Japan,
mountains of Japan or
islands of Japan. Some ships had explicitly non-Japanese names, such as ships named after cities. Shinto shrines
Chichibu Maru (1930). '''' (1930).
Heian Maru (1930).
Hikawa Maru (1930).
Kasuga Maru (1940).
Kitano Maru (1909).
Nitta Maru (1939).
Tatsuta Maru (1930).
Terukuni Maru (1930).
Yawata Maru (1939) Provinces
Awa Maru (1899).
Awa Maru (1943).
Kaga Maru (19__).
Noto Maru (1934).
Tango Maru (1905). Mountains
Asama Maru (1929).
Maya Maru (1925).
Rokko Maru (1923). Cities
Asuka Maru (1924).
Calcutta Maru (1917).
Dakar Maru (1920).
Durban Maru (1920).
Hakone Maru (1921)
Lima Maru (1920).
Lisbon Maru (1920).
Lyons Maru (1920). Miscellaneous
Bokuyo Maru Korea Maru (1901).
Kyushu Maru (1862).
Siberia Maru (1901).
Taiyō Maru (1911).
Toyama Maru (1915).
Yoshida Maru (1941).
Fleet in post-war era The modern NYK tonnage encompasses a variety of ship names.
ACX Hibiscus (1997)
Auriga Leader (2008)
Cepheus Leader (2006)
Astoria Maru (1952)
Galaxy Leader (2002)
Hakone Maru (1968)
Hikawa Maru (1974)
Zeus Leader (2009) As the demand for passenger ships dwindled in the 1960s, NYK expanded its cargo operation, running Japan's first
container ship Hakone Maru on a route to
California in 1968 and soon establishing container ship routes to many other ports. NYK became a partner in
Nippon Cargo Airlines in 1978, Following the enactment of the U.S. Shipping Act of 1984, NYK shifted its focus towards mass intermodal transportation, including: (1) enlarged container ships in the trade, (2) NYK owned/operated container terminals at the U.S. West Coast gateways, and (3) participation in US inland transportation by introducing the operation of mile-long Double Stack Trains (two-tier container freight train service across the U.S., in collaboration with U.S. railway companies)." NYK Line decided to enter the world-wide luxury cruise ship market and established Crystal Cruises Inc. in Los Angeles. In July 1990 the first post-war cruise passenger ship Crystal Harmony has been completed (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki), and she marked the beginning of services of
Crystal Cruises. (Los Angeles to Alaska and returned to San Francisco) '' On 19 November 2023, the NYK operated vessel
Galaxy Leader, while sailing in Red Sea en route to India, was hijacked by the Iranian backed
Houthi on the grounds it was an Israeli owned vessel. In May 2024 the owners asked the Houthis to release the crew. ==Merger of container operations==