Chapter　3　 Harbors

(Brief Look at Harbors' Condition)

　 　 As of July 5th, 1975, there exist 1,083 harbors in Japan, broken down to 17 specially designated important harbors, 106 important harbors and 960 local harbors. Mooring facilities in Japan as of the end of fiscal 1973 are shown in (Table 2-(3)-1), and the wharves totaled to an extension of 1,466 kilometers.
　 　 The cargo volume handled at harbors for 1974 stayed almost flat from the previous year with about 2,700 million tons, up 1.3% as shown in (Table 2-(3)-2).
　 　 Seen by cargo item, the biggest foreign trade cargo was raw materials for manufacturing industry such as crude oil, mining products and lumber for the import, the aggregate of those three items amounting to 76.9% of the total import cargo, and metal machines and chemical products for the export, the two items occupying 83.5% of the total export cargo. In coastwise trade, oil, mining products and metal machines led others except the rolling stock transported by car ferry which shared 39.4% of the total coastla cargo (Table 2-(3)-3).
　 　 In 1974, port entering vessels numbered 9,740 thousand in gross number of vessels and 2,896 million in gross tonnage, up 0.7% and 12.1% respectively from the preceding year.
　 　 In recent years, port entering vessels have become conspicuously larger and specialized. To cope with this trend, the expenditure of 316 billion yen was made on the port improvement works in 1974, which corresponded to the fourth year of the fourth round 5 year plan for port facilities improvement (spanning 1971 - 1975 with gross expenditure of 2,100 billion yen), and 65.3% progress was achieved against the plan.