is the

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to bef ...

subsidiary of

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (or simply Kawasaki) is a Japanese Public company, public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, Heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment, aerospace and Military, defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headq ...

. It produces primarily specialized commercial vessels, including

LNG carrier An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). History The first LNG carrier '' Methane Pioneer'' () carrying , classed by Bureau Veritas, left the Calcasieu River on the Louisiana Gulf coast on 25 January ...

LPG carrier LPG may refer to: Science * Liquefied petroleum gas, a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases * Lipophosphoglycan, a class of molecule found on the surface of some eukaryotes, in particular protozoa Music groups * La Perdita Generacio, a Swedish ...

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, eco ...

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined ...

s, as well as high speed passenger jetfoils. In addition, it is also a producer of

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...

s for the

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJ ...

, including

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s. Kawasaki also produces marine machinery, including marine engines, thrusters, steering gears, deck and fishing machinery.

History

Kawasaki's origins go back to April 1878, when Shozo Kawasaki established Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

with the support of fellow Satsuma native and Vice Minister of Finance,

Matsukata Masayoshi Prince was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1891 to 1892 and 1896 to 1898. Early life Matsukata Masayoshi was born on 25 February 1835, in Arata, Kagoshima, Satsuma Province (present-day Shimoarata, Kagoshima, Kagosh ...

. In 1886, Kawasaki established a second shipyard in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...

Hyōgo prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

. With the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the p ...

, the two shipyards were flooded with new orders and ship repair requests. The two shipyards were merged in 1896 as the Kawasaki Dockyard Company, Ltd. Realizing the limitation of private management, Kawasaki decided to take the company

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

, and (as he had no son) chose Matsukata Kojiro, the third son of Matsukata Masayoshi, as his successor. Matsukata remained president for the next 32 years until 1928. Matsukata expanded business into

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or by using the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in ...

automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

and shipping. He also implemented Japan's first

eight-hour work day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 1 ...

system in 1919, after a massive strike by 30,000 workers threatened to bring down the government of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Takashi Hara was a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1918 to 1921. Hara held several minor ambassadorial roles before rising through the ranks of the Rikken Seiyūkai and being elected to the House of Representatives. Har ...

. Under Matsukata, Kawasaki Dockyards expanded its Hyōgo operations with a large

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

, completed in 1902. This dry dock is now listed as an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government. In 1906, after numerous technical difficulties, Kawasaki completed the first

s made in Japan for the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

. Kawasaki produced numerous warships for the Japanese navy, ranging from

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed ...

s to

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

s until the end of World War II.Spang, Japanese-German Relations. p. 45 Kawasaki started manufacturing

in 1907, and 4 years later produced its first

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

, for the Japanese

Ministry of Railways A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure ...

. Kawasaki manufactured 3,237 steam locomotives in total until 1971. This division was spun off in 1928 and incorporated as

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company is the rolling stock manufacturing subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Since beginning operations in 1906, the company has produced more than 90,000 railroad cars. Products As indicated by the company name, the company mainly produc ...

. In 1918, an Aircraft Division was established at the Hyōgo Works, only 15 years after the Wright brothers first flight. Kawasaki went on to build numerous innovative designs for the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

and Navy air services prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In 1937, the Aircraft Division was spun off and incorporated as Kawasaki Aircraft Co., Ltd. In 1969, Kawasaki Dockyard, Kawasaki Rolling Stock Manufacturing and Kawasaki Aircraft merged to become

. However, in 2002, Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation reemerged as a wholly owned subsidiary company. It was converted back into a division in 2010.

Products

Oil Tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined ...

s *

Bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, eco ...

s *

Container Ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

s * Ro/Ro Vessels * Jetfoils *

Warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...

s **''Fuyushio'', ''Natsushio''-class submarine **''Unryū'', ''Soryū''-class submarine **''Oyashio'', ''Uzushio'', ''Isoshio'', ''Kuroshio'', ''Yaeshio'', ''Mochishio'', ''Oyashio''-class submarine **''Natsushio'', ''Arashio'', ''Fuyushio'', ''Harushio''-class submarine ** ''Zuikaku'', ''Shōkaku''-class Aircraft Carrier ** ''Taiho'', ''Taiho''-class aircraft carrier ** ''Ise'', Ise-class battleship ** ''Haruna'',

Kongō-class battlecruiser The was a class of four battlecruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) immediately before World War I. Designed by British naval architect George Thurston, the lead ship of the class, , was the last Japanese capital ship construct ...

** ''Thonburi''-class coastal defence ship *Marine

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam tu ...

s *Marine

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...

s *

Marine Thruster A marine thruster is a device for producing directed hydrodynamic thrust mounted on a marine vehicle, primarily for maneuvering or propulsion. There are a variety of different types of marine thrusters and each of them plays a role in the marit ...

s *Ship Control Systems

References

* * * *

Notes

External links

Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation
{{authority control Kawasaki Heavy Industries Shipbuilding companies of Japan Defense companies of Japan Imperial Japanese Navy Manufacturing companies based in Kobe Japanese companies established in 1878 Manufacturing companies established in 1878 Shipyards building World War II warships