BRIEF HISTORY
Until the time when a Portuguese ship made a visit tothis nation in the 16th century, the trading partners of Japan
were confined to the area of South-East Asia. The ships
engaged in the trade were served by pilots who mastered thearts of both terrestrial and celestial navigation, and they played
a positive role in piloting vessels in an extensive sea area.
In the early part of the 17th century, Japan closed its
doors to foreigners and entered a state of total national isolation
which lasted for approximately 200 years. During this period,
trade with overseas partners was completely suspended except
on very special occasions.
Japan, however, emerged from isolation and resumed
the state of free trade with foreign countries once again in theface of a strong demand by the Western Powers demonstrated
by men-of-war and merchant vessels visiting Japan in the
middle of the 19th century. Taking this opportunity, theTokugawa Shogunate (the feudal government)decided to set up
pilot teams in various regions of this nation.
During the infancy of the Japanese shipping industry in
the eighteen-seventies, pilotage services were provided underfree competition on a private business basis, because theprovision of pilotage services had not been organized yet. Under
such circumstances, every pilot was so eager to go further
off-shore to capture incoming ships to offer a pilotage service ina highly competitive manner. Information suggests that distressaccidents involving pilot boats frequently occurred in thosedays, particularly during the typhoon season.
Such overheated competition to provide pilotage
services was often seen during the infancy of the provision ofpilotage services in Europe as well. The government of eachcountry planned to modernize the system of pilotage services by
establishing a pilotage association in which many pilots wereadequately organized in an integrated manner. Japan was no
exception, and one pilotage association for each pilotage district
was organized. As a result, the provision of safe and functionalpilotage services was initiated in a systematic way.
In 1876 the first Japanese Pilotage Regulations were set
down. On the whole, these Regulations were modelled on the
Merchant Shipping Act, 1854 of the United Kingdom.
Later on, in 1899, the Government of Japan
promulgated the Pilotage Law as a consolidation of revised
Pilotage Regulations which was attempted in an integrated
effort to improve and reorganize those existing maritime laws tokeep them up with the expansion of seaborne traffic. In thesedays, there were five pilotage districts served by fourteen pilots(of these, Japanese pilots accounted for only six persons).
After the termination of World War II, a variety of
post-war transformations in the realm of legal systems werepromoted by the Government of Japan under the doctrine ofdemocracy, and the former Pilotage Law 1949 was enacted insuch a socio-economic environment. The compulsory pilotage
system was first introduced at that time.
In the beginning of 21st century, going along with thetide of deregulation, major parts of the Pilotage Law wererevised in 2007, so that the approval system of fee and thegrade (1st, 2nd and 3rd) system of license were introduced.