Even amid the difficult challenges facing shipbuilding, Japan Marine United (JMU) president and chief executive Shinjiro Mishima believes the national industry needs to keep on developing.

He says growth in global population and world GDP, as well as increasing energy consumption, will increase in seaborne traffic.

“Japan is an island country and relies heavily on trade; 99.7% of trade comes in the form of seaborne transportation,” says Mishima.