(Transport of Coastwise Shipping)

1.　 　 Transport activity of coastwise shipping in 1974 was generally stagnant reflecting the drop of Japan's economic activity with the volume of transport falling by major step to 500 million tons (off 12.8% from the previous fiscal year) and to 192,400 minion ton-kilometers (off 7.7%). As to major items, the steel, which has the largest share among the general freight, made a large drop especially in the last half to bring the yearly transport volume to 54,470 thousand tons (down 9.9% from the previous fiscal year), reflecting the fall of domestic demand and crude steel production, as illustrated in (Fig. 2-(1)-3). Coal dipped to 16,230 thousand tons (off 4.2%). Further, cement, a material related to public works, decreased to 32,590 thousand tons (off 8.9%) as impacted by the government's restraining policy on gross demand. Lime stone dropped to 38,860 thousand tons (off 4.4%).
　 　 On the other hand, oil products, the most numberous goods, recorded the volume of each month going under the corresponding month of the previous year, coming to the year total of 196,330 thousand kl, down 8.3% from the previous fiscal year, affected by the import reduction of crude oil and the decrease of domestic petroleum consumption. The drop in the last half of the year was especially large, demonstrating the clear impact on the last half by the economic recession as well as in other major items.
2.　 　 The coastal fleet tonnage at the end of fiscal 1974 was 3,890 thousand gross tons (up 4.4% from the same quarter a year ago) as shown in (Table 2-(1)-4) marking a large increase despite aforementioned reduction in the transport demand. Among all, special Purpose Ships to meet unique transport requirements of each material like tankers, special tank vessels, cement purpose ships, and lime stone purpose ships have made a steady progress in their development and there was a conspicuous increase of container ships and roll-on, roll-off ships to haul sundry goods for them to finally occupy 53% of the total coastal fleet tonnage.
3.　 　 Records of passenger transport by coastal liners in the fiscal 1974 (Fig. 2-(1)-5) is noted for its stagnancy with the volume of transport being 154,670 thousand persons (off 9.7% from the previous fiscal year) and 7,449,550 thousand of passengers kilometers (up 1.2%), due to the ebbing consumption accompanying the economic recession.
　 　 On the other hand, as (Fig. 2-(1)-6,Fig. 2-(1)-7) illustrates, the car transport by car ferry, after past several years of brisk growth, also ended with the unimpressive increase to 21,330 thousand cars (up 2.5% from the previous fiscal year) and 1,560,080 thousand vehicle-kilometers (up 5.0%), as the increase in passenger cars were partially offset by drops in buses and trucks. Among them, the passenger transport volume by long distance ferry registered 5,500 thousand persons (up 6.i from the previous fiscal year), and 2,935,830 thousand of passenger-kilometers (up 8.6%) and car transport by same came to 1,820 thousand cars (up 1.7%), and 1,052,620 thousand vehicle-kilometers (down 1.0%).
　 　 Passenger liner enterprises as of the end of the fiscal 1974 are shown in (Table 2-(1)-8), as 947 enterprises operate 1568 lines with 2,877 ships equivalent to 893,932 gross tons engaged, comparing to the previous fiscal year, the numbers of enterprises, lines and ships, are all seen in the declining trend owing to the abolition and reorganization of shipping lines due to road construction and dip in sightseeing demand.
　 　 However, ferry lines among them added 5 lines in the fiscal 1974 to bring the total to 226 lines, increasing engaged vessels to 473 ships equivalent to 695,958 gross tons (up 4.2% from the previous fiscal year), and boosting its share among the total passenger liner business to 16.4% in the number of ships and 77.9% in gross tonnage (73.7% in the previous fiscal year).