Port Of Tokyo, Japan

The Port of Tokyo lies at the head of Tokyo Bay on Honshu Island's Pacific coast. It is the biggest industrial and urban area in Japan and one of the major centers of the world economy. Located between the estuaries of the Tamagawa and Arakawa Rivers, the Port of Tokyo is just 14 nautical miles west of the Port of Chiba and about 23 kilometers northeast of the Port of Yokohama. It is also the capital of Japan and home to the Japanese Imperial family and the Imperial Palace. Containing 23 special wards, each of which is governed as a city in itself, the Port of Tokyo is the world's most populous urban areas.

In 2005, some 8.5 million people lived in the Port of Tokyo, and the prefecture was home to more than 12 million.

The Port of Tokyo is one of the most important financial centers in the world. According to The Economist's Big Mac Index, the Port of Tokyo's workers earn the highest salaries in the world. That's a good thing, since it is also recognized by many economic think tanks as the most expensive city in the world as well. Despite its great urban population, the Tokyo Prefecture is 35% forest, and it contained almost 8.5 thousand hectares of agricultural lands in 2003. While fish was once a major economic sector, the city gets most of its fish from the outer islands today. The Port of Tokyo also supports a busy and productive tourism industry.

 

The Bureau of Port and Harbor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is the port authority for the Port of Tokyo. The Bureau is responsible for managing, administering, maintaining, and upgrading the Port of Tokyo. It also develops reclaimed lands, the waterfront sub-center, and seaside parks. The Bureau is also responsible for implementing measures to mitigate high tides and for developing harbors and fishing ports in the outer islands.

The Port of Tokyo serves not only the local metropolis but much of the Shinetsu Region and the southern Tohoku area, encompassing a population of some 40 million people. The Port of Tokyo plays a vital role in area-wide transportation, linking land and sea transport of goods for both imports and exports. The Bureau has worked hard to assure the Port of Tokyo keeps up with the changing maritime commerce environment by enhancing terminals for containers, ferries, and specialized cargoes and by providing ample warehouse storage and distribution centers located conveniently on reclaimed lands behind the terminals and transportation networks.

In 2007, the Port of Tokyo served more than 31.3 thousand vessels carrying 87.6 million tons of cargo. Over 6.4 thousand were ocean-going vessels carrying 46.1 million tons of foreign trade, and more than 24.8 thousand domestic vessels carried 41.5 million tons of domestic cargoes. Foreign trade cargoes included 5.4 thousand container vessels carrying 43.4 million tons of containerized cargoes in 3.7 million TEUs.

Foreign cargoes of 46.1 million tons handled in the Port of Tokyo in 2007 included 17.6 million tons of exports and 28.5 million tons of imports. In addition to other (6.4 million tons) and combined cargoes (1.9 million tons), foreign exports were dominated by chemical products (1.6 million tons), electrical equipment (1.4 million tons), manufactured goods 1.2 million tons), machinery (1.2 million tons), and auto parts (1.0 million tons). Other exports included scrap metal, reusable materials, and pulp and paper.

Aside from other cargoes (13.4 million tons) and combined cargoes (3.5 million tons), the Port of Tokyo handled foreign imports that included electrical equipment (1.9 million tons), fruits and vegetables (1.6 million tons), chemical industry products (1.5 million tons), manufactured goods (1.3 million tons), processed foods (1.2 million tons), furniture and equipment (1 million tons), clothing and footwear (1 million tons), livestock products (1 million tons), and lumber (1 million tons).

Domestic throughput of 41.5 million tons in the Port of Tokyo in 2007 included 24.9 million tons of outbound and 26.6 million tons of inbound cargoes. Outbound cargoes were dominated by cars (7.7 million tons), waste soil (2 million tons), and combined cargoes (2.3 million tons). Inbound domestic cargoes in the Port of Tokyo were dominated by cars (6.1 million tons), sand and gravel (5.7 million tons), cement (2.7 million tons), and petroleum products (2 million tons).

The Port of Tokyo covers over a thousand hectares of land area and 5.3 hectares of water surface. Its breakwater is over 8.5 thousand meters long, and its wharves and piers total over 22.7 thousand meters with some 204 berths including 15 berths of 4.5 thousand meters for containers. The Port of Tokyo contains over 209.4 thousand square meters of public transit sheds and more than a million square meters of public open-air storage yards. Its timber basins cover over 999 thousand square meters, and the Port of Tokyo's Heliport covers more 147 thousand square meters.

The Port of Tokyo's Oi Container Terminal is one of Japan's most modern facilities, and it is central to the international distribution of goods. Forty companies operate ultra-modern distribution facilities in 33 hectares of warehouse space serving the terminal. The terminal is served by seven large-scale berths to accommodate the largest container vessels.

The Aomi Container Terminal in the Port of Tokyo has 1570 meters in five berths. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government operates three of the berths, and the Tokyo Port Terminal Corporation operates two of the berths. The berths are equipped with 12 container cranes. The Port of Tokyo's Aomi Container Terminal can accommodate large container vessels up to 50 thousand DWT. The Aomi Cargo Distribution Center occupies two buildings behind the wharf and has capacity to handle, store, and convey cargoes.

The Port of Tokyo's Shinagawa Container Terminal is a public terminal managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Opened in 1967, it is the oldest container terminal in Japan. Today, it serves container routes to China, Korea, Southeast Asia, and coastal routes.

The foreign trade foodstuffs terminals in the Port of Tokyo provide capacity for handling a wide range of agricultural and marine products. Anticipating increased traffic in these cargoes, the outdated berths at the Harumi Terminal are being replaced in stages by the modern facilities at the Oi Terminal that started operating in 1999.

The Port of Tokyo's Oi Foodstuffs Terminal has three berths in operation today, and it handles mainly wheat, fresh fruits and vegetables, and other foodstuff imports. The wheat mill and silo complex behind the berth has been relocated from the Harumi Terminal. There are also two transit sheds for handling, fumigating, and storing fresh fruits and vegetables and other imported food products. The Oi Marine Products Terminal in the Port of Tokyo has two berths that can accommodate 30 thousand DWT vessels. The terminal can handle frozen deep-sea seafood imported from Africa, New Zealand, and the northern seas. Located behind the terminal, three cold-storage transit sheds, complemented by private warehouses, and six private cold-storage freezer warehouses can store up to 350 thousand tons of cargo.

The Tsukishima Terminal in the Port of Tokyo is a fisheries base specializing in marine products, and it is supported by large-scale cold-storage warehouses. The terminal is the stockyard for the Tsukiji Central Wholesale Market (see Cruising and Travel section below) on the Sumids River. Combined with the Oi Foodstuffs and Marine Terminals, the Tsukishima Terminal is a major food source for the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Although most of the cargo in the Port of Tokyo is shipped in containers, some cargoes are not compatible with containers and must be shipped in bulk. The Port of Tokyo's Odaiba Liner Terminal, the Foreign Trade Terminal, and the Harumi Terminal, among others, serve conventional cargo vessels. The Odaiba Liner Terminal offers nine berths totaling 1.8 kilometers in length and can accommodate vessels up to 15 thousand DWT. The Odaiba Liner Terminal handles a variety of cargoes that include steel, machinery, lumber, paper, and fruits. It has many transit sheds and private warehouses to effectively handle the full range of cargoes.

The Bulk Cargo Terminal at the Port of Tokyo's Inner-Central Breakwater Reclamation Area is a public terminal that handles mainly coal, silica sand, and other bulk cargo imports. Operating since 2000, it has a 240-meter long berth with alongside depth of alongside depth of 12 meters that can accommodate vessels to 30 thousand DWT. The first terminal in the Inner-Central Breakwater Reclamation Area, the Port of Tokyo's Bulk Cargo Terminal is equipped with unloaders, conveyor belts, and a variety of other cargo-handling machinery.

Responding to the Port of Tokyo area's heavy demands for new residences, office buildings, and other structures, the Construction Material and Lumber Terminal at the Port of Tokyo specialize in handling sand, gravel, other construction materials, logs, and lumber. Expecting continued and increasing demands for these materials, the Port of Tokyo will continue to develop large-scale terminals in the Outer-Central Breakwater Reclamation Area.

The Oi Construction Material Terminal in the Port of Tokyo opened in 1981 to serve the city's construction industry. The terminal has four berths that specialize in handling sand and gravel. The Wakasu Construction Materials Terminal opened for public use in the Port of Tokyo in 1989 to handle domestic sand, gravel, and other construction materials.

Lumber imports from Canada and the United States are discharged at the Port of Tokyo's No. 15 Lumber Terminal. The open-air storage yard at the rear of the terminal has capacity to store up to 200 thousand cubic meters of lumber. The No. 12 Timber Basin covers 56 hectares of water surface, and it can store as many as 210 thousand tons of logs at one time, receiving logs mainly from Malaysia and other locations.

Since it was known as Edo Port, the Port of Tokyo has been a center for distribution of goods throughout Japan. With a long history as the country's major domestic marine transport base, the Port of Tokyo has long handled cargoes of foodstuffs, paper, steel, automobiles, and other products that satisfy domestic consumers. Regular routes move traffic between the Port of Tokyo and Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Recently, intermodal transport has increased, as have containers and roll-on/roll-off cargoes. The Port of Tokyo plans to continue to develop modern terminals that can handle these domestic cargoes quickly and efficiently. The Port of Tokyo is a base for ferries that link the city with Shikoku and Kyushu, transporting both passengers and goods, including automobiles.

The Port of Tokyo's Shihaura Terminal handles general cargo carried by conventional vessels, and it has extensive transit sheds and storage areas. The Hinode Terminal is the oldest terminal in the Port of Tokyo, and it is scheduled to be developed as a passenger ship terminal and promotional center for the location of commercial, business, and other facilities. The Shinagawa Domestic Trade Terminal specializes in handling newsprint, automobiles, and miscellaneous roll-on/roll-off cargoes on routes with the Port of Hokkaido. The Tatsumi Terminal in the Port of Tokyo opened in 2002 to handle steel and miscellaneous goods between the port and remote islands.

The Number 10 Terminal is an important transport facility linking the Port of Tokyo with Kyushu, Okinawa, and Hokkaido with a network of regularly-scheduled routes. The terminal handles a wide range of cargoes that include steel, automobiles, pulp and paper, and general cargoes. Like the Shinagawa Terminal, the No. 10 Terminal serves an increasing number of roll-on/roll-off vessels. The Wakasu Domestic Trade Terminal handles containerized cargoes between the Port of Tokyo and Hokkaido.

The Port of Tokyo's Takeshiba Terminal is the gateway to Izu and Ogasawara Islands. Because the facility had deteriorated significantly by the end of the 1980s, it was reconstructed and refitted in 1995 to contain an office building, a hotel, commercial facilities, and a passenger terminal.

The No. 10-1 Multi-Purpose Terminal in the Port of Tokyo was completed in 1996. It is the newest terminal in the Port of Tokyo, and is open for use to area residents. The terminal is used for delivery of exhibition materials destined for the Tokyo International Exhibition Center. It is also used by sailing ships, exhibit ships, and ships participating in local events. The terminal has an earthquake-resistant wharf designated for handling relief goods in the case of a disaster.

The Harumi Passenger Ship Terminal opened in 1991 when the Port of Tokyo was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The terminal welcomes both foreign and domestic luxury cruise ships and serves as a conference and event center for the city. The observation deck at the Port of Tokyo's Harumi Passenger Ship Terminal offers breathtaking panoramic views of the waterfront. The terminal is also the site of the Tokyo Port Festival in May and for firework displays during the summer.