Santoku Shipping Group's founder and owner is 77-year-old Masashi Taga.
He began his shipping career as a “salary man” for a local owning and operating company.
In 1972, Taga decided to carve out his own outfit and set up Santoku by acquiring a secondhand 6,500-dwt general cargoship to transport spare parts for Japanese carmaker Mazda.
Today, the largest ship type that Santoku owns is capesize bulkers.
