of risk assessment processes relevant to on-board disasters to augment the vocational charms of being a seafarer.

The I.A.I. Marine Technical Education Agency and the National Institute for Sea Training are the crew training institutions over which the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism hold jurisdiction. The I.A.I. Marine Technical Education Agency not only provides new seafarers' education but also implements reeducation to meet shipping firms' needs or to catch up with technological innovations. The National Institute for Sea Training provides unified onboard practical training on students at the I.A.I. Marine Technical Education Agency and mercantile marine colleges and technical colleges using five training ships. The National Institute for Sea Training has built a small coastal training ship to replace its aged turbine training ship to provide on-board training tailored to the actual needs of coastal ship operation in an effort to develop young seafarers who are capable of service off hand both effectively and efficiently.

## (2) Marine transportation industry

## ① Overseas shipping

The volume of cargo movement in the world for 2011 stood 8,947,000,000 tons (up 4.1% from its year earlier level), with Japan’s volume of seaborne trade for the same year at 902,520,000 tons (down 1.4% from its year earlier level).

Emerging nations’ economies followed a firm tone of growth in their overseas shipping business for FY2011, but the global economy in general remained on a low-growth orbit in the context of lags in the business pickup of the U.S. economy, protracted European financial and banking issues and a tight monetary policy in China, resulting in a sluggish marine transportation business, a rapidly rising yen, upsurges in the fuel prices and so on to toughen the business climate to a significant degree.

## ② Coastal passenger shipping industries

The coastal passenger shipping industries has been continuously caught in a tough management climate due to drastic declines in the volume of transportation after protracted economic recessions, trends in expressway tolls and more. The ferry services, which plays an important role as a means of regional transport and as a modal shift receiver, has reduced the number of service and has even pulled out, threatening continued availability of sea routes.

Accordingly, a variety of support measures have been advanced in collaboration with local governments and operators, including making ships more energy-efficient through the introduction of energy-saving equipments, enhancing the charms of voyage by sea, and improving user convenience in cooperation with the tourism industry.

As of April 1, 2010, there were 964 operators, who carried 85,050,000 passengers in FY2010 (down 7.7% from a year earlier).

Changes in the Number of Coastal Passenger Ship Operators and Number of Passengers Carried

## ③ Coastal shipping

Coastal shipping offers both high economic efficiency and an excellent shipping characteristic in terms of environmental preservation. Coastal shipping is a key means of transportation supporting Japan’s economic activity and national life, as it accounts for about one third of domestic distribution and about 80% of industrial basic material transport.

Under the influence of accelerating globalization of the world’s economy and changes in the domestic industrial structure from a permanently rising yen, the volume of transportation, mainly industrial basic materials, remains stagnant for long, adding to severity of the management environment. As ships continue to get aged rapidly, promotion of substitutional shipbuilding while steadily further improving transport efficiency would be essential in order to keep up with stable transportation while responding precisely to demand changes. To address this task, the Ministry supports with the reductions in the usage fee for substitutional shipbuilding that makes for better environmental performance through joint ownership scheme and promotes the enhancement of competitiveness by making ships more energy-efficient. At the