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As indicated in Table 3,
Japan's oceangoing shipping in FY1978 saw exports fall by 0.3% (up 3.6% in FY1977)
and imports by 0.6% (down 1.8% in FY1977).
Both export and import cargoes hauled by the Japanese merchant fleet, including
chartered foreign vessels, fell by 6.291(o in 1978 (both decreased by 0.3% in
1977). This is because, in export, as Japanese export goods became less competitive
due to the appreciation in the yen 's value, the volume of cargoes hauled by
liners suffered a drastic 15.2% decrease, and in import the volume of cargoes
carried by trampers also fell by 13.3%, due largely to Japan's reduced imports
of iron ore and coal. Accordingly, the cargo share of the Japanese merchant
fleet fell 3.5% to 49.3% for exports and 1.4% to 72.5% for imports.
The volume of cargoes hauled by Japanese-flag ships alone (not including
chartered foreign vessels) showed a modest 0.2% gain in 1978 as far as exports
were concerned. The volume of cargoes hauled by liners dropped by 9.7% but that
by tramps increased by 8.2%. Their performance in hauling import cargoes was,
however, bleak, registering a 10.391(o fall. The volume by liners gained 5.6%
but that by tramps decreased 15.9%.
Thus the cargo share of Japanese-flag ships declined 0.1 percentage point
to 20.8% for exports and 2.7 percentage points to 41.6% for imports.
Meanwhile, the volume of cargoes hauled between foreign nations by Japanese-registered
ships decreased by 11. 5% (o in 1978. Particularly, the volume of crude oil
carried by Japanese tankers recorded a drastic 28.9% drop. This was due in part
to the reduced volume of international oil trading and in part to the reduction
in the number of Japanese-registered oil tankers amid the continued slump in
the world tanker market. The transport capacity of Japanese shipowners declined
as they moored some of their tankers for storing imported crude oil.
Outbound air transport cargoes, which declined 0.3% in FY1977, increased
7.6% in FY 1978. Inbound air cargoes increased 28.1% in FY 1978 after it registered
a 16.8% gain in the preceding year. (See
Table 3.) The volume of outbound air cargoes hauled by Japanese airlines
increased 5.991(o in FY1978 (up 0.1% in FY1977, while that of inbound cargoes
rose more sharply by 24.2% (o (up 22.9% in FY 1977). The cargo share of Japanese
airlines, however, fell 0.5 percentage point to 32.7% for outbound cargoes and
declined 1.2 percentage point to 36.0% for inbound cargoes.
Domestic freight transported in FY1978 totaled 5,500 million tons, up 8.6%
over the preceding fiscal year, and 409,500 million ton-kilometers, up 5.8%.
It registered gains of 2.0% and 3.6%, respectively, in FY1977. (See
Table 4.)
Particularly outstanding was the volume of goods carried by motor vehicles
(for both business and private uses), which renewed the record 407,100 million
ton-kilometers set in FY1973 but fell short of the record 5,877 million tons
registered in FY1972.
By mode of transportation, railways marked time both in terms of ton-kilometers
and tons, whereas both motor vehicles and coastal shipping came out with an
improved performance. Aviation showed a high growth rate, though the volume
hauled was relatively small.
The movement of goods became active in keeping with the business pickup,
and the volume of transport increased appreciably for almost all items both
in the primary and secondary product categories. Figure
2 shows how the domestic freight traffic is broken down by mode of transportation.
(Table 5)
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