Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited the NYK Maritime Museum in Yokohama on July 17, 2017, a national holiday known as Marine Day.

NYK chairman Yasumi Kudo and museum director Tadashi Abe greeted the imperial couple, and museum vice-director Hakuei Wakiya escorted the royals around.

The imperial couple keenly reviewed the museum’s exhibitions, which included Mitsubishi founder Yataro Iwasaki’s establishment of Japan’s modern shipping industry, NYK and Tata’s joint establishment of the Bombay route in 1893, the many celebrities who traveled on NYK luxury passenger liners in the early 1900s, the devastation resulting from World War II, and the company’s recovery through use of its only large surviving ship, Hikawa Maru. The imperial couple shared their impressions that the main method of transport for passengers today has changed to airplanes from ships, which used to be the only mode of transportation.

--NYK Maritime Museum
Examines the history of Japan’s maritime transport industry since the establishment of NYK in 1885.
Website: http://www.nyk.com/rekishi/e/

*War memorial statue
For the 70th anniversary of NYK’s establishment, the company commissioned a statue to mourn the 5,312 employees lost during the Pacific War. The statue was produced by Seibo Kitamura (1884-1987), renowned sculptor of the Peace Statue in Nagasaki Peace Park.