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2022年07月03日
11.Love Boat," the TV show that sparked the popularity of cruise travel
Love Boat," the TV show that sparked the popularity of cruise travel
Picking up on the Hollywood movies that stimulated the travel business during this era, we find the following. The TV show "Love Boat," which was enjoyed at after-dinner family reunions, succeeded in instilling the romantic world of cruise travel in many people.
September 24, 1977. At 10 p.m. on Saturday, ABC Television, one of the three major networks in the United States, aired the premiere of "The Love Boat," based on the 1974 book by Geraldine Sanders. This was the beginning of a series of romantic-comedy television dramas about Captain Stebbin and his crew and passengers on board the 20,000-ton, 640-passenger Pacific Princess of Princess Cruises Inc.
Produced by Aaron Spelling of Charles Angel (1976-81). One episode was broadcast each week as the series toured the ports of call on each cruise. (Along with foreign ports of call, cruises made a strong impression on viewers as a new form of travel.) For the first seven years of its television run, the program remained as popular as The Ed Sullivan Show, the most popular show of its time.
) In the seven years since the show was broadcast, it has remained as popular as the Ed Sullivan Show, the most popular show of its time, and has always sold out early because passengers were allowed to participate. With the advent of this program, travel became more accessible to Americans. The "Love Boat" series continued until the spring of 1986, using the major cruise ships of the time. It continued to be filmed on location and aired as a two-hour special on the ship. The romance and the fun of living on a ship made it into a teaser, and the cruise was considered the "perfect vacation," a tradition that has been passed down through the generations by Americans ever since.
At a time when the process of reunion was centered on television, the impact of this program was enormous. Princess Cruise continued to promote Gavin McLeod, who played the lead Captain Staving in the film, as a spokesman for the brand.
Picking up on the Hollywood movies that stimulated the travel business during this era, we find the following. The TV show "Love Boat," which was enjoyed at after-dinner family reunions, succeeded in instilling the romantic world of cruise travel in many people.
September 24, 1977. At 10 p.m. on Saturday, ABC Television, one of the three major networks in the United States, aired the premiere of "The Love Boat," based on the 1974 book by Geraldine Sanders. This was the beginning of a series of romantic-comedy television dramas about Captain Stebbin and his crew and passengers on board the 20,000-ton, 640-passenger Pacific Princess of Princess Cruises Inc.
Produced by Aaron Spelling of Charles Angel (1976-81). One episode was broadcast each week as the series toured the ports of call on each cruise. (Along with foreign ports of call, cruises made a strong impression on viewers as a new form of travel.) For the first seven years of its television run, the program remained as popular as The Ed Sullivan Show, the most popular show of its time.
) In the seven years since the show was broadcast, it has remained as popular as the Ed Sullivan Show, the most popular show of its time, and has always sold out early because passengers were allowed to participate. With the advent of this program, travel became more accessible to Americans. The "Love Boat" series continued until the spring of 1986, using the major cruise ships of the time. It continued to be filmed on location and aired as a two-hour special on the ship. The romance and the fun of living on a ship made it into a teaser, and the cruise was considered the "perfect vacation," a tradition that has been passed down through the generations by Americans ever since.
At a time when the process of reunion was centered on television, the impact of this program was enormous. Princess Cruise continued to promote Gavin McLeod, who played the lead Captain Staving in the film, as a spokesman for the brand.
10.Hollywood's "New Form of Travel"
Postwar movies and television programs are said to have changed the way Americans think about travel.
The introduction of a lifestyle of "travel" in one's leisure time, using Hollywood's medium of film and television to play the role of an aspiring star, had a powerful impact on the American psyche. We had entered an era in which the image of Hollywood stars enjoying their lavish holidays in Paris and London in Europe and in the luxury resort city of Palm Springs in Japan became the focus of family reunions through the successive publication of lifestyle magazines, TV programs, and movies.
This new lifestyle was synergistically stimulated by the experience of travel and fashion. It created new values of life. New and unknown worlds were opening up in the conversation of the tea room. They unconsciously superimposed themselves on the events and romances in these movies and TV shows and dreamed up new travel destinations (destinations and tourist attractions).
As a result of World War II, the victorious Americans turned their attention to Europe. Before the war, the film industry, centering on Hollywood, promoted overseas production using studios in London and Italy, partly because the high dollar at the time made it cheaper to film on location overseas than to build studios in the U.S., including labor costs.
The number of people of that generation who admired the visual stage and theme and the new sophisticated Italian and French fashion increased. While actively engaging in overseas location shooting. With advances in editing technology, new film techniques, mainly compositing studio and location films, seemed fresh to the general American audience.
To create this European atmosphere, she speaks English with a European accent. Actress Audrey Hepburn plays a major role. She appeared in many new love stories set in Europe, and the music behind the scenes, with big bands such as Gershwin and Mancini, added color. In 1953, Hepburn appeared in William Wyler's "Roman Holiday" against the backdrop of the many ruins of Rome, which showed Americans not only the new lifestyle, but also the importance of culture and history.
Eddie Albert, who later appeared in the film, told me that the plot itself was refreshing in its longing for the Europe of their ancestors, especially the historical landscapes and the discovery of a white society that was different from the American one. It was said to have opened the eyes of Americans of the time to European fashions. He also said that this kind of stimulus pushed them toward a postwar consumer economy. Certainly, Audrey Hepburn was the spark that ignited the "Givenchy" boom through the later movie "Charade" and others.
Around the same time, other films directed by David Lean and Katharine Hepburn, such as "Travels" (Summertime: 1955), set in Venice, made American women increasingly long for Europe, including Italy. There were always "love stories" involved, including Italian and French. Speaking of Italy, there was also Vivien Leigh's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). This was also a story of sightseeing in Rome and a love story woven together there.
The special longing of Americans for Europe at that time was seen in the French boom of the 1960s, and Hollywood films could not tell a love story without France. The American in Paris, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Sabrina the Beautiful, Death in Paris on a Rainy Morning, and Late Afternoon Affair excited many Americans, especially the ladies.
If you look across the Pacific Ocean, you will see the exotic Hawaii (which became the 50th state of the U.S. on August 21, 1959), which was thought to be a foreign country beyond, and "local" exploration TV programs such as "Hawaiian Eye" (1959) were also a big hit.
Speaking of Hawaii, even the movie "Blue Hawaii" (1961), starring Elvis Presley, stimulated the burgeoning number of West Coast visitors. Love is a Many - Splendored Thing (1955), set in Hong Kong at a time when the Korean War had focused attention on Asia, is also said to have impressed American audiences with a new, albeit different, world from Western culture through American theatrical films.
The development from studio films to location films also influenced the "007" series, which was adapted into films in the 1960s. The Cold War spy wars were enough to open Americans' eyes to other countries.
The tension between East and West during the Kennedy era also helped, and films such as "From Russia With Love (1957)" and "Goldfinger (1964)" incorporated new areas of exotic culture and action that were different from the traditional Westerns and other films that dealt with America's frontier history. The "foreign" setting attracted many fans.
The Japanese location of "007 Dies Twice (1967)" gave American moviegoers an impression of Japan after the Tokyo Olympics as the "Rising Sun. NYK's Akita Maru was also in the film.
In the early 1980s, "Shogun" (starring Japan's Toshiro Mifune and Yoko Shimada), aired on NBCTV, was a big hit and stimulated conversation at American family reunions. Later, in 1986, "Gung Ho" (Japanese title: Kutsuki Nippon Kabushiki Kaisha), a comedy adaptation of "Japan-U.S. Cultural and Economic Friction" starring Michael Keaton, became a hit and instilled a prejudiced view of the Japanese in many Americans.
At the time this movie was a hit, NYK had begun a feasibility study of the Crystal Cruise project in the United States.
The introduction of a lifestyle of "travel" in one's leisure time, using Hollywood's medium of film and television to play the role of an aspiring star, had a powerful impact on the American psyche. We had entered an era in which the image of Hollywood stars enjoying their lavish holidays in Paris and London in Europe and in the luxury resort city of Palm Springs in Japan became the focus of family reunions through the successive publication of lifestyle magazines, TV programs, and movies.
This new lifestyle was synergistically stimulated by the experience of travel and fashion. It created new values of life. New and unknown worlds were opening up in the conversation of the tea room. They unconsciously superimposed themselves on the events and romances in these movies and TV shows and dreamed up new travel destinations (destinations and tourist attractions).
As a result of World War II, the victorious Americans turned their attention to Europe. Before the war, the film industry, centering on Hollywood, promoted overseas production using studios in London and Italy, partly because the high dollar at the time made it cheaper to film on location overseas than to build studios in the U.S., including labor costs.
The number of people of that generation who admired the visual stage and theme and the new sophisticated Italian and French fashion increased. While actively engaging in overseas location shooting. With advances in editing technology, new film techniques, mainly compositing studio and location films, seemed fresh to the general American audience.
To create this European atmosphere, she speaks English with a European accent. Actress Audrey Hepburn plays a major role. She appeared in many new love stories set in Europe, and the music behind the scenes, with big bands such as Gershwin and Mancini, added color. In 1953, Hepburn appeared in William Wyler's "Roman Holiday" against the backdrop of the many ruins of Rome, which showed Americans not only the new lifestyle, but also the importance of culture and history.
Eddie Albert, who later appeared in the film, told me that the plot itself was refreshing in its longing for the Europe of their ancestors, especially the historical landscapes and the discovery of a white society that was different from the American one. It was said to have opened the eyes of Americans of the time to European fashions. He also said that this kind of stimulus pushed them toward a postwar consumer economy. Certainly, Audrey Hepburn was the spark that ignited the "Givenchy" boom through the later movie "Charade" and others.
Around the same time, other films directed by David Lean and Katharine Hepburn, such as "Travels" (Summertime: 1955), set in Venice, made American women increasingly long for Europe, including Italy. There were always "love stories" involved, including Italian and French. Speaking of Italy, there was also Vivien Leigh's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). This was also a story of sightseeing in Rome and a love story woven together there.
The special longing of Americans for Europe at that time was seen in the French boom of the 1960s, and Hollywood films could not tell a love story without France. The American in Paris, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Sabrina the Beautiful, Death in Paris on a Rainy Morning, and Late Afternoon Affair excited many Americans, especially the ladies.
If you look across the Pacific Ocean, you will see the exotic Hawaii (which became the 50th state of the U.S. on August 21, 1959), which was thought to be a foreign country beyond, and "local" exploration TV programs such as "Hawaiian Eye" (1959) were also a big hit.
Speaking of Hawaii, even the movie "Blue Hawaii" (1961), starring Elvis Presley, stimulated the burgeoning number of West Coast visitors. Love is a Many - Splendored Thing (1955), set in Hong Kong at a time when the Korean War had focused attention on Asia, is also said to have impressed American audiences with a new, albeit different, world from Western culture through American theatrical films.
The development from studio films to location films also influenced the "007" series, which was adapted into films in the 1960s. The Cold War spy wars were enough to open Americans' eyes to other countries.
The tension between East and West during the Kennedy era also helped, and films such as "From Russia With Love (1957)" and "Goldfinger (1964)" incorporated new areas of exotic culture and action that were different from the traditional Westerns and other films that dealt with America's frontier history. The "foreign" setting attracted many fans.
The Japanese location of "007 Dies Twice (1967)" gave American moviegoers an impression of Japan after the Tokyo Olympics as the "Rising Sun. NYK's Akita Maru was also in the film.
In the early 1980s, "Shogun" (starring Japan's Toshiro Mifune and Yoko Shimada), aired on NBCTV, was a big hit and stimulated conversation at American family reunions. Later, in 1986, "Gung Ho" (Japanese title: Kutsuki Nippon Kabushiki Kaisha), a comedy adaptation of "Japan-U.S. Cultural and Economic Friction" starring Michael Keaton, became a hit and instilled a prejudiced view of the Japanese in many Americans.
9.Cruise Ship Operators and the Flag of Convenience System
Cruise Ship Operators and the Flag of Convenience System
Just as nationalities and other forms of registration follow individuals around the world, ships around the world also have nationality (ship's nationality) registrations. Half of the merchant ships currently in service around the world are flagged in countries that have adopted a flag of convenience system, rather than being registered in their own country (the country of actual ownership), such as developed countries. Countries that have introduced such a system include the Bahamas and Panama.
The advantages of this system from the operator's point of view are (1) registration tax and operational taxation (tax haven), (2) fewer restrictions on unions, etc., and a variety of options for crew/employee assignments, (3) flexibility in ship safety and facilities, and (4) the ability to operate ships with a high degree of safety. (3) Flexible operation of ship safety and facilities (different countries have different standards for safety and facilities).
Cruise ship operations have two aspects: the maritime aspect of "moving the ship" and the service aspect of "taking care of the many travelers on board. The former, from the perspective of nautical technology, can be solved as an extension of cargo ship operations, but the latter, the mechanism for "taking care of many travelers" (i.e., hiring many employees), is valuable because it determines travelers' evaluations, which in turn leads to the sustainability of the business.
The recruitment of the most competitive and diverse crew (licensed) and employees determines the quality of service on board. Diversity and quality of service is achieved by having a diverse service sector and a mixed workforce that draws on the national characteristics of each of the nationalities that fill it and their characteristics. Under the flag-of-convenience ship system, there is less interference and restrictions from unions, etc., and large cruise ships can be competitive due to the cost reduction effect of the system. Under this system, this aspect also has a significant ripple effect.
Many travelers board cruise ships with expectations of the environment and services they will receive on board, and in order to respond flexibly and quickly to these expectations, the system itself must have a relatively free framework. The shipboard system is, in a sense, like a small city on the sea, and is built on human compatibility (with travelers), i.e., the right person at the right time. For this reason, it is necessary to have a mechanism to hire people who have the ability to meet the needs of travelers at any time, and this is where the key to success lies. One of the management tips for this rapid operation was the adoption of the flag-of-convenience ship system.
Most of the cruises in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea were based on the "ship of convenience" system. While most of the passengers were from the U.S. market, the people providing services on board were "non-Americans," Europeans and Asians from the Philippines, etc. This compatibility created a delicate atmosphere on board. At the time, some U.S. travel agents filed lawsuits claiming that U.S. domestic law (hiring Americans) should be applied to resolve shipboard accidents, but cruise ship operators could not abandon the advantages of the flag-of-convenience ship system.
On the other hand, by hiring the best staff from the international labor market under this system, the cruise lines were able to create a service delivery system on board that was comparable to that of domestic hotels in the United States. In order to achieve this, communication between the ship's guests and the ship's staff was essential, and the ultimate goal was to create a form of accommodation on board that would emphasize "English language skills" (since the ship's guests were mainly American, English was made the official language on board).
Just as nationalities and other forms of registration follow individuals around the world, ships around the world also have nationality (ship's nationality) registrations. Half of the merchant ships currently in service around the world are flagged in countries that have adopted a flag of convenience system, rather than being registered in their own country (the country of actual ownership), such as developed countries. Countries that have introduced such a system include the Bahamas and Panama.
The advantages of this system from the operator's point of view are (1) registration tax and operational taxation (tax haven), (2) fewer restrictions on unions, etc., and a variety of options for crew/employee assignments, (3) flexibility in ship safety and facilities, and (4) the ability to operate ships with a high degree of safety. (3) Flexible operation of ship safety and facilities (different countries have different standards for safety and facilities).
Cruise ship operations have two aspects: the maritime aspect of "moving the ship" and the service aspect of "taking care of the many travelers on board. The former, from the perspective of nautical technology, can be solved as an extension of cargo ship operations, but the latter, the mechanism for "taking care of many travelers" (i.e., hiring many employees), is valuable because it determines travelers' evaluations, which in turn leads to the sustainability of the business.
The recruitment of the most competitive and diverse crew (licensed) and employees determines the quality of service on board. Diversity and quality of service is achieved by having a diverse service sector and a mixed workforce that draws on the national characteristics of each of the nationalities that fill it and their characteristics. Under the flag-of-convenience ship system, there is less interference and restrictions from unions, etc., and large cruise ships can be competitive due to the cost reduction effect of the system. Under this system, this aspect also has a significant ripple effect.
Many travelers board cruise ships with expectations of the environment and services they will receive on board, and in order to respond flexibly and quickly to these expectations, the system itself must have a relatively free framework. The shipboard system is, in a sense, like a small city on the sea, and is built on human compatibility (with travelers), i.e., the right person at the right time. For this reason, it is necessary to have a mechanism to hire people who have the ability to meet the needs of travelers at any time, and this is where the key to success lies. One of the management tips for this rapid operation was the adoption of the flag-of-convenience ship system.
Most of the cruises in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea were based on the "ship of convenience" system. While most of the passengers were from the U.S. market, the people providing services on board were "non-Americans," Europeans and Asians from the Philippines, etc. This compatibility created a delicate atmosphere on board. At the time, some U.S. travel agents filed lawsuits claiming that U.S. domestic law (hiring Americans) should be applied to resolve shipboard accidents, but cruise ship operators could not abandon the advantages of the flag-of-convenience ship system.
On the other hand, by hiring the best staff from the international labor market under this system, the cruise lines were able to create a service delivery system on board that was comparable to that of domestic hotels in the United States. In order to achieve this, communication between the ship's guests and the ship's staff was essential, and the ultimate goal was to create a form of accommodation on board that would emphasize "English language skills" (since the ship's guests were mainly American, English was made the official language on board).
Airline Industry "Deregulation" and Larger Aircraft Have Impact on the Cruise Industry
Airline Industry "Deregulation" and Larger Aircraft Have
Impact on the Cruise Industry
After the war, military aircraft manufacturers switched to building commercial airliners. Although overseas travel by air was not yet affordable to the average person, postwar Hollywood movies and television programs stimulated many people's "yearning" for overseas travel and changes in their own lifestyles. U.S. airlines showed a steady increase in transatlantic travel, partly because lifestyle media such as fashion, which was still a new field at the time, promoted the convenience of traveling to Europe by air and new "travel packages.
Sense of time has also changed dramatically. Transatlantic international flow of people was shifting at a rapid pace from traditional liner shipping to air travel. On the Atlantic, Pan American Airways was competing with the luxury liners connecting Europe and the U.S. mainland by sea, selling a comfortable, well-serviced in-flight atmosphere.
The advent of Pan American's round-the-world flights (1947) and the British BOAC's first flight between New York and London (1958) with the Comet, introduced in 1949, convinced the world that the jet age had arrived. （The North Atlantic shipping lines (connecting major ports in Europe and the U.S.) were also forced to withdraw from the North Atlantic shipping business, as they lost customers to jet airlines, which advertised the speed and convenience of "transportation and travel". The "Queen Mary," the queen of the Atlantic and a representative of luxury cruise ships, also sought a safe haven in Long Beach on the west coast of the United States.
The first test flight of the so-called "jumbo" Boeing 747 in 1969 and the opening of regular air routes between major U.S. cities and major European cities by Pan American in January of the following year (1970) marked the arrival of the jet travel era and the transformation of the sky into the "era of mass transportation. The air travel era was transformed into the "era of mass transportation" in the skies. The concept of market share and economies of scale in overseas travel gained ground, and this was a sign of the explosive war to attract customers centered on American airlines.
Against this backdrop, the "deregulation" led by the Carter/Reagan administrations in the U.S. gave further impetus to the competition in the skies.
President Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 on October 24, 1978, which was succeeded by President Reagan. In 1991, United Airlines took over Pan American's international rights, which had established itself as the leader of international flights in the U.S. airline industry, and Eastern Airlines, the leading airline on the East Coast, was absorbed by Delta Air Lines.
The airlines, as suppliers of services, are required to create new demand, and they have been working on the introduction of large individual contracts with large travel groups (including cruise lines) (such as volume fares) and the development of new services, such as more flexible pricing systems (computerization is being promoted to achieve a variety of pricing) and increased extra flights (including cruise lines). The introduction of a customer loyalty system, including a frequent flyer system, helped the company to attract a customer base and secure a repeat customer base. In terms of operations, the company introduced the "hub airport concept," which calls for economies of scale and cost reductions.
The sudden change in the environment due to deregulation of the airline industry contributed greatly to the popularization of Caribbean cruises. Cruise lines' new ways of dealing with airlines also began to affect their ability to attract passengers from all over the United States. Cruise lines began to have a significant impact on cruise operations, especially in the Caribbean. The cruise lines' new association with airlines has had a major impact on their ability to attract passengers from the U.S. and abroad.
For cruise lines targeting Caribbean "zones" (not equal to home ports), the problem became one of how to get passengers from their "home boats" (not equal to home ports) across the U.S. to their various home ports in Miami, a very important logistical strategy. Home ports, such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale, receive millions of passengers annually who embark and disembark from cruises.
Many of them are drawn from every year in the U.S. and will fly to the base port. The embarking and disembarking passengers were seen by the major airlines as "group travelers" who were a perfect fit for round-trip packages. For the airlines, the cruise lines were attractive customers because they had the habit of holding back the travelers, such as shipboard passengers and on-board employees, from booking in large numbers.
The cruise lines also exercised this "control of the air" wi, temporary flight contracts and arrangements for special bulk rates (bulk rates) and temporary charter flights, etc., to secure the "flow of people" boarding and disembarking from the ships. In cooperation with airlines, combined air travel became common, and many cruise lines built logistics that also involved airports, having in-house air ticketing systems and incorporating air fares into cruise fares.
Impact on the Cruise Industry
After the war, military aircraft manufacturers switched to building commercial airliners. Although overseas travel by air was not yet affordable to the average person, postwar Hollywood movies and television programs stimulated many people's "yearning" for overseas travel and changes in their own lifestyles. U.S. airlines showed a steady increase in transatlantic travel, partly because lifestyle media such as fashion, which was still a new field at the time, promoted the convenience of traveling to Europe by air and new "travel packages.
Sense of time has also changed dramatically. Transatlantic international flow of people was shifting at a rapid pace from traditional liner shipping to air travel. On the Atlantic, Pan American Airways was competing with the luxury liners connecting Europe and the U.S. mainland by sea, selling a comfortable, well-serviced in-flight atmosphere.
The advent of Pan American's round-the-world flights (1947) and the British BOAC's first flight between New York and London (1958) with the Comet, introduced in 1949, convinced the world that the jet age had arrived. （The North Atlantic shipping lines (connecting major ports in Europe and the U.S.) were also forced to withdraw from the North Atlantic shipping business, as they lost customers to jet airlines, which advertised the speed and convenience of "transportation and travel". The "Queen Mary," the queen of the Atlantic and a representative of luxury cruise ships, also sought a safe haven in Long Beach on the west coast of the United States.
The first test flight of the so-called "jumbo" Boeing 747 in 1969 and the opening of regular air routes between major U.S. cities and major European cities by Pan American in January of the following year (1970) marked the arrival of the jet travel era and the transformation of the sky into the "era of mass transportation. The air travel era was transformed into the "era of mass transportation" in the skies. The concept of market share and economies of scale in overseas travel gained ground, and this was a sign of the explosive war to attract customers centered on American airlines.
Against this backdrop, the "deregulation" led by the Carter/Reagan administrations in the U.S. gave further impetus to the competition in the skies.
President Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 on October 24, 1978, which was succeeded by President Reagan. In 1991, United Airlines took over Pan American's international rights, which had established itself as the leader of international flights in the U.S. airline industry, and Eastern Airlines, the leading airline on the East Coast, was absorbed by Delta Air Lines.
The airlines, as suppliers of services, are required to create new demand, and they have been working on the introduction of large individual contracts with large travel groups (including cruise lines) (such as volume fares) and the development of new services, such as more flexible pricing systems (computerization is being promoted to achieve a variety of pricing) and increased extra flights (including cruise lines). The introduction of a customer loyalty system, including a frequent flyer system, helped the company to attract a customer base and secure a repeat customer base. In terms of operations, the company introduced the "hub airport concept," which calls for economies of scale and cost reductions.
The sudden change in the environment due to deregulation of the airline industry contributed greatly to the popularization of Caribbean cruises. Cruise lines' new ways of dealing with airlines also began to affect their ability to attract passengers from all over the United States. Cruise lines began to have a significant impact on cruise operations, especially in the Caribbean. The cruise lines' new association with airlines has had a major impact on their ability to attract passengers from the U.S. and abroad.
For cruise lines targeting Caribbean "zones" (not equal to home ports), the problem became one of how to get passengers from their "home boats" (not equal to home ports) across the U.S. to their various home ports in Miami, a very important logistical strategy. Home ports, such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale, receive millions of passengers annually who embark and disembark from cruises.
Many of them are drawn from every year in the U.S. and will fly to the base port. The embarking and disembarking passengers were seen by the major airlines as "group travelers" who were a perfect fit for round-trip packages. For the airlines, the cruise lines were attractive customers because they had the habit of holding back the travelers, such as shipboard passengers and on-board employees, from booking in large numbers.
The cruise lines also exercised this "control of the air" wi, temporary flight contracts and arrangements for special bulk rates (bulk rates) and temporary charter flights, etc., to secure the "flow of people" boarding and disembarking from the ships. In cooperation with airlines, combined air travel became common, and many cruise lines built logistics that also involved airports, having in-house air ticketing systems and incorporating air fares into cruise fares.
Florida in the East and Las Vegas in the West: A Journey to a "Theme Park" Sojourn City
Florida in the East and Las Vegas in the West: A Journey to a "Theme Park" Sojourn City
Rapid changes in air and land transportation in the postwar era rapidly brought population centers and stay-at-home resorts closer together. In addition to the traditional "summer summer getaways" of New England and Maine on the East Coast, people from Chicago, New York, and other cities expanded their choices of places to stay as "winter getaways," seeking beaches (and pools) during the day and casinos and shows at night, extending to Florida and other Southeast states as well as to the Caribbean. This has led to a broadening of the choice of places to stay as "winter getaway destinations.
In addition to the casinos in Kentucky and the North Miami area and Cuba, the new Las Vegas and other casinos and entertainment, including shows, became the focus of even greater attention than before.
Due in part to the unrest in Cuba, funds from pensions of transportation unions (Teamsters) and other pension funds, mainly from the Midwest, flowed into the emerging city of Las Vegas in the desert, helping the rapid growth of this emerging tourist destination and stimulating the hotel industry there by building new super-sized hotels and increasing the floor space.
Using their financial resources as a shield, the new hotels swept away the traditional idea of small-scale stay-and-go facilities and created a new business model as a large scale stay-and-go travel destination that was also loaded with casinos and shows.
In the 1960s, transparency in the casino business became an issue. Federal tax clampdowns and aggressive intervention by state authorities succeeded in cleaning up the traditional "negative legacy" (mafia-controlled anti-skimming measures). The entry into the casino industry of "entrepreneurs" such as Howard Hughes and Kirk Kerkorian, as well as various administrative measures taken by state government corporations against the casino industry, also encouraged the entry into Las Vegas by international hotel companies such as Hilton Hotels.
Many of them believed that the future of Las Vegas lay in its development as a comprehensive entertainment city with theaters and many restaurants, outgrowing the "casino industry. They aggressively marketed the former "casino industry" city as a new stay-and-go tourist city where families could enjoy themselves and events could be held.
In the late 1960s, they attracted star entertainers from Los Angeles and Hollywood, and the foundation was laid for Las Vegas to become a new theme park-type stay-and-go city with casinos and nightlife. By this time, Las Vegas had become the healthiest and safest city in the world.
This improved environment prompted the state of Nevada and the tourism authorities to expand the convention center's facilities, while private capital was used to build it. Hotels and other accommodations and healthy nighttime entertainment worked to attract events and travelers from all over the U.S., and repeat visitor measures were strengthened to ensure further stable growth.
Like Las Vegas in the west, Orlando in the east (Florida) has grown rapidly as a new staycation resort city (such as the "family staycation" Disney World). This new resort city was expanding along with the entertainment industry, an expansion project along the lines of Disney's grand project based on careful and long-term vision.
Planned since around 1963, and using pseudonyms and other secretive land acquisitions, the city was born in 1971 as a theme park-type city complete with a huge family-style amusement park and a hotel for stays, such as "Disney World". (Adjacent Epcot Center: opened in 1982).
The management philosophy is to "pass on the joy of experiencing Disneyland and other theme parks to the next generation and grandchildren. These cities will further expand their scope to include large-scale accommodations for general entertainment (amusement type), and they will become more and more "theme park cities".
Rapid changes in air and land transportation in the postwar era rapidly brought population centers and stay-at-home resorts closer together. In addition to the traditional "summer summer getaways" of New England and Maine on the East Coast, people from Chicago, New York, and other cities expanded their choices of places to stay as "winter getaways," seeking beaches (and pools) during the day and casinos and shows at night, extending to Florida and other Southeast states as well as to the Caribbean. This has led to a broadening of the choice of places to stay as "winter getaway destinations.
In addition to the casinos in Kentucky and the North Miami area and Cuba, the new Las Vegas and other casinos and entertainment, including shows, became the focus of even greater attention than before.
Due in part to the unrest in Cuba, funds from pensions of transportation unions (Teamsters) and other pension funds, mainly from the Midwest, flowed into the emerging city of Las Vegas in the desert, helping the rapid growth of this emerging tourist destination and stimulating the hotel industry there by building new super-sized hotels and increasing the floor space.
Using their financial resources as a shield, the new hotels swept away the traditional idea of small-scale stay-and-go facilities and created a new business model as a large scale stay-and-go travel destination that was also loaded with casinos and shows.
In the 1960s, transparency in the casino business became an issue. Federal tax clampdowns and aggressive intervention by state authorities succeeded in cleaning up the traditional "negative legacy" (mafia-controlled anti-skimming measures). The entry into the casino industry of "entrepreneurs" such as Howard Hughes and Kirk Kerkorian, as well as various administrative measures taken by state government corporations against the casino industry, also encouraged the entry into Las Vegas by international hotel companies such as Hilton Hotels.
Many of them believed that the future of Las Vegas lay in its development as a comprehensive entertainment city with theaters and many restaurants, outgrowing the "casino industry. They aggressively marketed the former "casino industry" city as a new stay-and-go tourist city where families could enjoy themselves and events could be held.
In the late 1960s, they attracted star entertainers from Los Angeles and Hollywood, and the foundation was laid for Las Vegas to become a new theme park-type stay-and-go city with casinos and nightlife. By this time, Las Vegas had become the healthiest and safest city in the world.
This improved environment prompted the state of Nevada and the tourism authorities to expand the convention center's facilities, while private capital was used to build it. Hotels and other accommodations and healthy nighttime entertainment worked to attract events and travelers from all over the U.S., and repeat visitor measures were strengthened to ensure further stable growth.
Like Las Vegas in the west, Orlando in the east (Florida) has grown rapidly as a new staycation resort city (such as the "family staycation" Disney World). This new resort city was expanding along with the entertainment industry, an expansion project along the lines of Disney's grand project based on careful and long-term vision.
Planned since around 1963, and using pseudonyms and other secretive land acquisitions, the city was born in 1971 as a theme park-type city complete with a huge family-style amusement park and a hotel for stays, such as "Disney World". (Adjacent Epcot Center: opened in 1982).
The management philosophy is to "pass on the joy of experiencing Disneyland and other theme parks to the next generation and grandchildren. These cities will further expand their scope to include large-scale accommodations for general entertainment (amusement type), and they will become more and more "theme park cities".
Chapter 2: Preliminary Knowledge of Entering the Cruise Business Travel Situation in the United States
Let's trace the historical background of the U.S. in the postwar period and the consideration of entering the cruise ship business (postwar period when "new forms of travel" sprouted and the "Introduction to the Cruise Era").
The "New Style of Travel" and Changes in the Travel Environment
(1) Changes in the domestic economic structure and the emergence of seasonal "stay-and-go" travel and "local" TV programs
The industrial base in the U.S. changed in the postwar period, and the military industry grew significantly, especially in the Great Lakes region, with Chicago and other Great Lakes cities in the southwest and Pittsburgh and other areas being referred to as the Great Lakes Industrial Zone. The rapid growth of the urban population, especially the working class, changed their lifestyles and extended to vacations and travel away from the workplace.
The increased labor participation of women during the war also drastically changed the income structure of families, and the new clientele, who now had more time and money to spend, differed from the prewar "hometown trips" and "family reunions" to visit family members and others.
They chose a new form of "seasonal stay-and-go travel. Just like the German poet Goethe's "Trip to Italy" in the late 18th century, a group of winter travelers, called "snowbirds," emerged from the cold north, mainly in the Midwest, seeking the "sun and sea" of the south.
In the southern islands facing the Caribbean Sea, besides sun and sea, they found new discoveries in environments different from their northern lives, such as the Carnival. Engraved by their own "staycation experience," they repeatedly visited and stayed in the region, becoming repeat visitors and a steady stream of travelers. Air travel expanded rapidly with the expansion of Pan Am Airlines and other route networks, and it was during this same period that long-distance travel was stimulated.
The 1960s ushered in the television era, and television programming was a major factor, with leading television station ABC teaming up with Warner Brothers (TV) to produce the Hollywood-based "Sunset 77" (1958) and the New Orleans-set "Bourbon Street" ( Bourbon Street" (1959), and "Surfside Six" (1960), which unfolded under the Miami sun, dominated prime time. These "local" TV shows, which focused on new "outdoor mobility-centric stories" set "on location," encouraged a new generation of travelers to explore new "destinations" around the country and abroad.
（The development of domestic highways (promoted by President Eisenberg) brought the mobility of automobiles and large vans to individual and family travelers, and rapidly changed travel styles that had traditionally relied on "scheduled long-distance buses and trains.
Route 66" (the highway from Chicago to Los Angeles), which before the war was known as "the road of immigrants" from eastern U.S. cities where immigrant ships made port calls, and after the war, where veterans' families and others moved in search of new jobs, was a TV movie (1960) based on events along this highway. It was enough to make many Americans who had never seen the ocean envision "warm, sun-drenched cities and the Pacific Ocean" ahead of them, and it stirred the desire for automobile travel.
As cars became commonplace, railroad companies such as Amtrak, which had been responsible for the transcontinental railroad, were forced to withdraw from this business.
The "New Style of Travel" and Changes in the Travel Environment
(1) Changes in the domestic economic structure and the emergence of seasonal "stay-and-go" travel and "local" TV programs
The industrial base in the U.S. changed in the postwar period, and the military industry grew significantly, especially in the Great Lakes region, with Chicago and other Great Lakes cities in the southwest and Pittsburgh and other areas being referred to as the Great Lakes Industrial Zone. The rapid growth of the urban population, especially the working class, changed their lifestyles and extended to vacations and travel away from the workplace.
The increased labor participation of women during the war also drastically changed the income structure of families, and the new clientele, who now had more time and money to spend, differed from the prewar "hometown trips" and "family reunions" to visit family members and others.
They chose a new form of "seasonal stay-and-go travel. Just like the German poet Goethe's "Trip to Italy" in the late 18th century, a group of winter travelers, called "snowbirds," emerged from the cold north, mainly in the Midwest, seeking the "sun and sea" of the south.
In the southern islands facing the Caribbean Sea, besides sun and sea, they found new discoveries in environments different from their northern lives, such as the Carnival. Engraved by their own "staycation experience," they repeatedly visited and stayed in the region, becoming repeat visitors and a steady stream of travelers. Air travel expanded rapidly with the expansion of Pan Am Airlines and other route networks, and it was during this same period that long-distance travel was stimulated.
The 1960s ushered in the television era, and television programming was a major factor, with leading television station ABC teaming up with Warner Brothers (TV) to produce the Hollywood-based "Sunset 77" (1958) and the New Orleans-set "Bourbon Street" ( Bourbon Street" (1959), and "Surfside Six" (1960), which unfolded under the Miami sun, dominated prime time. These "local" TV shows, which focused on new "outdoor mobility-centric stories" set "on location," encouraged a new generation of travelers to explore new "destinations" around the country and abroad.
（The development of domestic highways (promoted by President Eisenberg) brought the mobility of automobiles and large vans to individual and family travelers, and rapidly changed travel styles that had traditionally relied on "scheduled long-distance buses and trains.
Route 66" (the highway from Chicago to Los Angeles), which before the war was known as "the road of immigrants" from eastern U.S. cities where immigrant ships made port calls, and after the war, where veterans' families and others moved in search of new jobs, was a TV movie (1960) based on events along this highway. It was enough to make many Americans who had never seen the ocean envision "warm, sun-drenched cities and the Pacific Ocean" ahead of them, and it stirred the desire for automobile travel.
As cars became commonplace, railroad companies such as Amtrak, which had been responsible for the transcontinental railroad, were forced to withdraw from this business.
Part I. Creation from "zero" to a dream cruise ship. Chapter I. The "Dreams" of Two Presidents for Cruise Liners
Part I.
Creation from "zero" to a dream cruise ship.
Chapter I. The "Dreams" of Two Presidents for Cruise Liners
The Retirement of the Hikawa Maru and the Romance Stolen from the Sea
Before the war, NYK had many overseas routes to North America, Europe, and other destinations, and many of the world's famous people of the time used its services. NYK had many historic passenger and cargo ships on the world's oceans. As far back as 1922, there is a record of Einstein and his wife boarding the "Kitano Maru" from Marseille, France (October 5) to Kobe (November 17).
The 11,600-ton Hikawa Maru, which made its maiden voyage in 1930, was in service between Yokohama and Seattle for 30 years before and after the war, and in 1932, the comedy king Chaplin boarded the ship. In 1932, the ship welcomed a variety of passengers, including Prince and Princess Chichibu, Fulbright students, and the Takarazuka Revue. While the ship had the glamorous aspect of a passenger ship, it was also commissioned as a hospital ship during the Pacific War, and was demobilized immediately after the war's end. In 1953, the Hikawa Maru was once again used as a cargo ship, and has remained a coveted "flower of the North Pacific. The Hikawa Maru was a very important ship in the history of NYK's passenger liners.
However, in August 1960, the Hikawa Maru was sadly retired. Exactly 30 years had passed since its maiden voyage. Although there was a 12-year interruption during and after the war, the ship made 238 crossings through the waves of the North Pacific Ocean, supporting the journeys of some 25,000 people. In the year following her retirement, the ship was berthed in Yokohama, her birthplace, as part of the "Yokohama Port 100th Anniversary Commemorative Project. Standing in a corner overlooking Yamashita Park from Yokohama Grand Pier, where cruise ships from around the world dock, Hikawa Maru has long been a symbol of the Port of Yokohama and has formed the image of "cruise ships" for the Japanese people.
Although NYK withdrew from the cruise ship business with the retirement of the Hikawa Maru, it was also a time when the company sought a plan to build a cruise ship that would become the "post-Hikawa Maru.
The following description is found in the "Under Two Flags" section of NYK's Centennial History.
_____ Hikawa Maru Retirement? The rumor of the Hikawa Maru's retirement was reportedly received like a tidal wave of voices from both inside and outside of the company, asking the company to somehow build cruise ships once again. Should NYK continue to operate cruise ships or should it choose the path of withdrawal? That is why there was a time in Europe when one could not be considered a first-class shipping company unless one had a luxury cruise ship running on the open seas. Anyone with money can own a tanker. This is because it is a "thing" itself. However, a cruise ship cannot be bought with money. It is the "people" themselves. However, continuing to operate a cruise ship is a way of passing on culture (technology). To discontinue a cruise ship means to abort it. In Japan, NYK is the only company that can pass it on. ___
As it happens, in 1953, seven years before the retirement of the Hikawa Maru, the Tourism Business Council took up the issue of building Pacific cruise ships and brought it to a Cabinet decision. Then, in 1959, the bipartisan "Pacific Cruise Ship Roundtable" was formed, and Kakuei Tanaka was appointed its chairman.
With international events such as the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the Osaka World Exposition in 1970 coming up, there were growing calls in both the public and private sectors for a new cruise ship as a symbol of Japan as a maritime nation. NYK seized this opportunity and submitted to Chairman Tanaka the "Trans-Pacific Passenger Ship Construction Plan Related Documents," a new shipbuilding plan that the company had prepared in 1959. According to the above-mentioned "Under Two Flags," the contents were as follows.
The plan called for a ship of __31,000 tons, sailing speed of 26 knots (*1 knot = 1.852 km/h), maximum speed of 31 knots, and a passenger capacity of 1,200. Two of these vessels will be deployed on the San Francisco and Los Angeles routes. The estimated cost of the two vessels is 25-30 billion yen.
(Omitted).
The Japan Shipowners' Association, the Shipbuilders' Association of Japan, and other industry groups have submitted requests for the construction of passenger ships. The Japanese American Chamber of Commerce in Honolulu and Los Angeles also sent a letter of request to the prime minister.
The Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism), with the strong backing of Chairman Tanaka and these requests, drew up a budget plan for FY1959 that included 1 billion yen for the general account and 1.375 billion yen for the fiscal investment and loan. If all went according to plan, the first ship was to be completed in July 1963 and the second in July 1964.
However, a natural disaster really made the dream plan remain a dream.
In September 1959, a ferocious typhoon hit the Kii Peninsula and the Tokai region, leaving more than 5,000 people dead or missing. It was the Isewan Typhoon. Eisaku Sato, the Minister of Finance at the time, decided to allocate the budget allocated for passenger ships to the restoration of damage caused by the Ise Bay typhoon. Thus, the new shipbuilding plan went with the winds of the Ise Bay typhoon.
The leaders of NYK had no choice but to decide that the era of passenger ships had passed in the wake of the jet plane era. They decided to retire the Hikawa Maru and withdraw from the cruise ship business. The harsh reality of economic rationality had finally robbed the sea of its romance.
Fateful Encounter with NYK President Kimio Miyaoka
Kimio Miyaoka, then president of NYK, had a fateful encounter with the Hikawa Maru 15 years before she was retired. His grandfather became an instructor at the Naval Academy during the Civil War (1877) and taught Kantaro Suzuki, who later became prime minister, and Mitsumasa Yonai. My uncle worked on passenger ships for Osaka Merchant Marine and was stationed in Buenos Aires, South America for a long time. From an early age, his grandfather and uncle often took him to ship-viewing ceremonies and to see Osaka Shosen's passenger ships.
Mr. Miyaoka entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo from Shizuoka High School, but it was the middle of the Pacific War. Soon after, he was mobilized as a student and assigned to the Navy, where he was to go on a suicide mission to Okinawa as a navigator. He boarded the destroyer Hibiki, which was escorting the battleship Yamato. However, the Hibiki was damaged by lightning shortly after launching and was forced to drop out of the escort group of destroyers. You never know what will turn out to be your lucky day. The "YAMATO" met a spectacular end, and her escorts shared her fate. The "Hibiki," which had been undergoing repairs in Kure, survived.
The "Hibiki" then headed for Maizuru Harbor to escort cargo ships repatriated by the Kwantung Army from the Korean Peninsula. In Maizuru, Mr. Miyaoka encountered the most beautiful white ship he had ever seen. It was the Hikawa Maru, which at the time was on duty as a hospital ship. The Hibiki laid alongside the Hikawa Maru and was refueled. Mr. Miyaoka and other officers were invited to the Hikawa Maru, where they were given a bath and were served sumptuous meals that were rarely seen during wartime. For Mr. Miyaoka, the experience on NYK's Hikawa Maru left a strong impression and impression on his mind that he would never forget.
After the war ended, Mr. Miyaoka returned to school and graduated in 1948. He then took the employment examination for NYK. His encounter with the Hikawa Maru in Maizuru Harbor was a major motivation for his decision.
When Mr. Miyaoka joined NYK, the Hikawa Maru was the only passenger ship left in Japan. Thirteen years later, NYK completely withdrew from the cruise ship business. How shocking this must have been for Mr. Miyaoka, who joined NYK after the Hikawa Maru.
A quarter of a century had passed since the Hikawa Maru disappeared from the Pacific.
In 1984, Mr. Miyaoka became president of NYK. The following year, the company celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding, and as it approached this milestone year, it launched "NYK21," its long-term strategy for the new century. And as an extension of this strategy, the company dreamed of "launching a cruise ship business. Although 25 years had passed since the retirement of the Hikawa Maru, Mr. Miyaoka must not have forgotten about it for a single moment. It was his dream, and NYK's dream for the 21st century, to build a luxury cruise ship "even better than the Hikawa Maru" and sail around the world's oceans.
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Mr. Miyaoka that appeared serially in the Yomiuri Shimbun ("My Road") from June 13, 1993.
When I gave up the idea of becoming a newspaper reporter because of my mother's opposition, NYK came to my mind. I was deeply impressed by the swan-like beauty of the "Hikawa Maru" I saw in Maizuru harbor during the war.
("Reporter's Question: ...... Mr. Miyaoka has resumed the cruise ship business after a 30-year absence.
(......If I recall correctly, there was some opposition to the idea at first.)
He said, "That's right. ()You must have had some opposition at first. (Laughs.) But when I asked the opinions of younger people, some said, "Britain and Norway are getting into cruise ships, so if we don't do it now, we will lose our chance. It was almost a 50-50 split. It was a time when the yen was strong and the situation was unstable, so I was very worried, but I decided that if half of the employees were in favor, I would give this a try. ____ ___
In fact, Mr. Miyaoka's decision to join NYK was vehemently opposed by his uncle, who had already retired from Osaka Merchant Marine. He was told, "Even if you work until retirement, Japanese shipping will probably never recover to its old level.
Mr. Yotaro Iida, president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, looks back on those days.
When Kentaro Kawamura, who succeeded Mr. Miyaoka and Mr. Nemoto as president of NYK, passed away suddenly, Mr. Yotaro Iida (then president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mr. Yotaro Iida of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (at that time, when he was an advisor to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) mourned Mr. Kawamura's death in a memorial book entitled "Kazehatami: Memories of the Construction of Modern Luxury Cruise Ships". In the book, President Iida's passion for cruise ships can be seen.
__As a student living in Yokohama, I watched ships coming in and out of the harbor from Harbor View Hill and thought that when peace came, the era of cruise ships would surely come. However, after joining the company, I was put in charge of a different department.
Time passed, and I unexpectedly became president of MHI in 1985. The so-called "Plaza Accord" caused the exchange rate from 240 yen to the dollar to fluctuate to 160 yen in one year. It was very difficult for the new president, who had no experience in asamitsu shipbuilding, to get the "red ship" under construction at the Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works, the company's main shipyard. The people of Nagasaki were all worried about whether the new president would be able to get the "red ship" afloat and in operation. In such a difficult situation, he suddenly thought to himself, "Yes, let's build a passenger ship, which I dreamed of in the past. It would be a quick way to persuade NYK, which had a long history of doing business with Mitsubishi. Moreover, the president, Kimio Miyaoka, knew the heart of painting. Fortunately, Mr. Miyaoka is also a Tokyo Prefectural First Grade School graduate and a chic of the same age as myself. Thinking that "the sooner the better, the better," I immediately offered to build him a cruise ship.
The response, however, was surprisingly cool. NYK's view was that building a cruise ship in Japan today would not attract customers. President Miyaoka was accompanied by Kentaro Kawamura, a smart and articulate general manager of the planning department. At that time, the question was whether cruise ships would really be viable in Japan.
The conversation was not going anywhere, but it took about a year to come to a positive conclusion. How much would it cost for NYK to build a passenger ship? How far would NYK be willing to go in order to undertake the construction? After negotiations between Iida and Miyaoka, both old hands with many dreams, and Kawamura, who was 10 years younger than Iida, the three of us began to discuss the matter, and within a short time we had received orders for the Crystal Harmony, a 50,000-ton luxury cruise ship, and the slightly smaller Asuka.
We later tried to win orders for the "Crystal Symphony," the same type as the "Crystal Harmony," but had to abandon the project due to the foreign exchange market.
However, looking back now, the secret stories of building passenger ships that Mr. Miyaoka and Mr. Kawamura taught me will remain as unforgettable memories. I am deeply moved by the graceful appearance of the modern cruise ship, which is the culmination of all the technology we have accumulated, and I am reminded once again of every single frame of the construction process, which was carried out in silence. ____
NYK and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries: The "bond of manhood" between two presidents
I believe that NYK's entry into the cruise ship business was made possible by the strong will to "build the world's most advanced cruise ship in Japan," a promise made by the two men, then NYK president Kimio Miyaoka, who wanted to operate cruise ships, and then Mitsubishi Heavy Industries president Yotaro Iida, who wanted to build the ships.
In Japan's shipbuilding industry, which is suffering from a shipbuilding recession, we want to somehow overcome this and improve our image. This was all Mr. Iida of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was thinking about every day. Mr. Miyaoka also used to say at the time, "Now, Mr. Iida can cooperate with us. Mr. Miyaoka always said, "Now, Mr. Iida will cooperate with us.
The resonance of Mr. Miyaoka's and Mr. Iida's passion. Without this harmony, NYK would never have been able to launch its cruise ship business in the U.S. market.
On the other hand, Mr. Miyaoka also believed that it was not necessary to stick to Japanese shipyards for the construction of new cruise ships. In fact, he was even concerned that Japanese shipyards, which had not built passenger ships for a long time, would have the know-how to do so. It was then that Mr. Iida came to visit Mr. Miyaoka. Mr. Iida had already received information that NYK was moving forward with the construction of passenger ships under Mr. Miyaoka's direction. Mr. Miyaoka and Mr. Iida had known each other for a long time and met frequently at meetings. It seems that Mr. Iida's purpose was to ask Mr. Miyaoka if he would allow MHI to build a new ship.
I heard that Mr. Iida was motivated to join MHI because he wanted to build a luxury cruise ship. The year was 1985, one year later than Mr. Miyaoka, who became president. The year of his appointment was 1985, one year later than that of Mr. Miyaoka, who became president of MHI. Unlike when Mr. Iida joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, there was no atmosphere within the company or in Japan at that time to build passenger ships.
Nevertheless, Mr. Iida did not give up, and he personally went around to shipping companies to obtain orders for passenger ships. MOL ordered the 23,000-ton "Fuji Maru," which was also built by NYK. This may have been one of the factors that prompted NYK to restart its cruise ship business.
However, Mr. Iida was not satisfied with "Fuji Maru. It seems that his biggest target was NYK. After all, NYK had a history of building passenger ships with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries before the war. It must have been Mr. Iida's dream to build a world-class luxury cruise ship for NYK. At that time, NYK had decided to open a cruise ship preparation office under the leadership of Mr. Miyaoka. It was impossible for Mr. Iida not to get excited.
One day, not long after he went to Mr. Miyaoka and said, "We would love to build a new ship for you. I later heard that Mr. Iida himself delivered a model of a passenger ship to Mr. Miyaoka. The model contained the message, "We would like to build a ship of this model, what do you think? Needless to say, the model contained the message, "We would like to build a ship of this model, how would you like it?
When Mr. Miyaoka saw the model, he was not convinced.
It was a one-meter-long model of the Asama Maru II, a slightly updated version of the Asama Maru, a passenger ship built by NYK before World War II. He said, "It's hard to ask such an old-fashioned company to do such a thing. Mr. Miyaoka and his colleagues at NYK had already moved away from the prewar cruise ships like the Asama Maru, and had envisioned a modern cruise ship like the ones used in the United States and Europe. However, is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' idea still the Asama Maru...?
The passion of these two presidents is detailed in "Voyage of Brilliance" (Sanae Sato).
It also introduces the "Asama Maru II," which Mr. Miyaoka laughed at.
President __Iida is going to NYK to pick up an order for a cruise ship, and he says he will bring a model of the ship as a souvenir. The order to design a replica of the ship was immediately sent to Nagasaki.
The engineers at the Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries wanted to create a new type of luxury cruise ship with a streamlined design and no smokestacks. However, there were internal complaints about the design. In particular, Kentaro Aikawa (later president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), who had been researching passenger ships with his subordinates when he was head of the Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works even before the idea of passenger ships came up, was adamantly opposed.
He said, "This kind of ship is no good. Mitsubishi builds luxury cars, not sports cars. Look at the Asama Maru. If you take the chimney out of the Asama Maru, it won't look good. Such a half-joking chimney is not good enough. Mr. Miyaoka is an old-fashioned person, and he would not like it unless the chimney was upright and had a double pull," he said. In the end, they replaced it with a majestic old-style passenger ship model with the Asama Maru in mind, which President Iida had to take with him.
Of course, the "Asama Maru II" was not the only thing that caused Mr. Miyaoka and the other members of NYK's cruise ship business to have concerns about Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. At the time, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was too little knowledgeable about modern cruise ships. NYK had already considered the Baltuguira Shipyard in Finland as a prime candidate for the construction of a new ship, and had already requested a design estimate. The two companies differed greatly in the content of their design quotations. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' estimate was fatally high.
Mr. Miyaoka said to President Iida.
Mitsubishi is apparently obsessed with the image of the Asama Maru, so we will get quotes from European shipyards as well, so please be aware of that.
Iida, flustered, tried to dissuade him.
If you do that, Iwasaki Yataro will be forced to leave the shipyard. If you do that, the ghost of Yataro Iwasaki will appear at Mr. Miyaoka's bedside when he sleeps at night. In fact, Yataro Iwasaki created Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) in order to establish a shipping company. Shipping and shipbuilding go hand in hand, and yet the shipping company had European shipyards build its ships. Yataro Iwasaki would have risen from his grave if he had ordered even a passenger ship.
It was no longer a bitter pill to swallow. After this, however, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is said to have begun intense, tearful research, second only to modern cruise liners. All in order to win orders for new ships from Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK).
Not wanting to lose to Western shipping companies and MOL
The environment surrounding NYK at the time was one of unprecedented deficits in the world of container transport, NYK's core business. To enter the cruise ship business under such circumstances, which required even greater investment and without accumulated knowledge, must have seemed insane to the other executives.
After the decision was made to move forward with this project, Mr. Miyaoka invited us and other U.S. executives to a private room at Imahan, a restaurant in the basement of a building in Yurakucho. At that table, he often shared with us his thoughts on the decision he had made in his heart to enter the cruise ship business.
He said, "When the containership business (NYK's top priority business) was in the red, the decision to enter the cruise ship business, which requires a huge investment, could have been made by an old-timer like myself, who had been president (and later chairman). It was not only nostalgia for the Hikawa Maru that prompted him to revive the cruise business, but also the situation of Japanese seafarers suffering from the strong yen (he was carrying out major rationalization) and his awareness of MOL, NYK's longtime rival.
I believe that if the two companies work hard and stimulate each other, the market now dominated by European and U.S. cruise ship operators will be able to capture even a portion of the market as a Japanese cruise ship operator. As a Japanese shipping company, we do not want to be outdone by Western shipping companies. If we miss this opportunity, future opportunities will be far away. Even NYK's current core business, container shipping, may be replaced by cheaper countries. We need to invest now in areas of business that will grow significantly in 30 or 50 years' time," he said.
MOL and NYK have been rivals on the world's oceans since before World War II. While NYK has handled European and North American routes, MOL is famous for its South American routes. In 1973, MOL MII completed its last Brazilian emigrant transport service with the first Nippon Maru (Nippon Maru), which made the round-the-world trip, but then MOL MII established a new company, MOL MII Passenger Ship, which operated the Nippon Maru and "New Sakura Maru" to continue the cruise ship business.
Furthermore, MOL announced the introduction of a new ship, the "Fuji Maru. This new vessel was not the Hikawa Maru-type liner cruise ship that had been envisioned in Japan up to that time, but rather Japan's first "cruise liner" with a strong leisure cruise flavor.
At the time, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) had begun to form a number of subsidiaries in the long-distance ferry business, far outstripping NYK. The "Fuji Maru" appeared in the market as if to add to MOL's success. It was not an easy task for NYK to be behind Mitsui O.S.K. Lines in the cruise ship sector as well. The sense of crisis that NYK felt must have been more than "shudder.
At the time, many of NYK's customers in the cargo transport field did not have training centers. There was a reasonable expectation that there would be demand for the use of cruise ships for corporate employee training, incentives, and other business activities. If NYK could build a cruise ship "better than Fuji Maru" by combining charter cruises and leisure cruises, it could compete with MOL on an equal footing. For NYK, this was, in a sense, a project that would bring the company back from the brink.
Creation from "zero" to a dream cruise ship.
Chapter I. The "Dreams" of Two Presidents for Cruise Liners
The Retirement of the Hikawa Maru and the Romance Stolen from the Sea
Before the war, NYK had many overseas routes to North America, Europe, and other destinations, and many of the world's famous people of the time used its services. NYK had many historic passenger and cargo ships on the world's oceans. As far back as 1922, there is a record of Einstein and his wife boarding the "Kitano Maru" from Marseille, France (October 5) to Kobe (November 17).
The 11,600-ton Hikawa Maru, which made its maiden voyage in 1930, was in service between Yokohama and Seattle for 30 years before and after the war, and in 1932, the comedy king Chaplin boarded the ship. In 1932, the ship welcomed a variety of passengers, including Prince and Princess Chichibu, Fulbright students, and the Takarazuka Revue. While the ship had the glamorous aspect of a passenger ship, it was also commissioned as a hospital ship during the Pacific War, and was demobilized immediately after the war's end. In 1953, the Hikawa Maru was once again used as a cargo ship, and has remained a coveted "flower of the North Pacific. The Hikawa Maru was a very important ship in the history of NYK's passenger liners.
However, in August 1960, the Hikawa Maru was sadly retired. Exactly 30 years had passed since its maiden voyage. Although there was a 12-year interruption during and after the war, the ship made 238 crossings through the waves of the North Pacific Ocean, supporting the journeys of some 25,000 people. In the year following her retirement, the ship was berthed in Yokohama, her birthplace, as part of the "Yokohama Port 100th Anniversary Commemorative Project. Standing in a corner overlooking Yamashita Park from Yokohama Grand Pier, where cruise ships from around the world dock, Hikawa Maru has long been a symbol of the Port of Yokohama and has formed the image of "cruise ships" for the Japanese people.
Although NYK withdrew from the cruise ship business with the retirement of the Hikawa Maru, it was also a time when the company sought a plan to build a cruise ship that would become the "post-Hikawa Maru.
The following description is found in the "Under Two Flags" section of NYK's Centennial History.
_____ Hikawa Maru Retirement? The rumor of the Hikawa Maru's retirement was reportedly received like a tidal wave of voices from both inside and outside of the company, asking the company to somehow build cruise ships once again. Should NYK continue to operate cruise ships or should it choose the path of withdrawal? That is why there was a time in Europe when one could not be considered a first-class shipping company unless one had a luxury cruise ship running on the open seas. Anyone with money can own a tanker. This is because it is a "thing" itself. However, a cruise ship cannot be bought with money. It is the "people" themselves. However, continuing to operate a cruise ship is a way of passing on culture (technology). To discontinue a cruise ship means to abort it. In Japan, NYK is the only company that can pass it on. ___
As it happens, in 1953, seven years before the retirement of the Hikawa Maru, the Tourism Business Council took up the issue of building Pacific cruise ships and brought it to a Cabinet decision. Then, in 1959, the bipartisan "Pacific Cruise Ship Roundtable" was formed, and Kakuei Tanaka was appointed its chairman.
With international events such as the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the Osaka World Exposition in 1970 coming up, there were growing calls in both the public and private sectors for a new cruise ship as a symbol of Japan as a maritime nation. NYK seized this opportunity and submitted to Chairman Tanaka the "Trans-Pacific Passenger Ship Construction Plan Related Documents," a new shipbuilding plan that the company had prepared in 1959. According to the above-mentioned "Under Two Flags," the contents were as follows.
The plan called for a ship of __31,000 tons, sailing speed of 26 knots (*1 knot = 1.852 km/h), maximum speed of 31 knots, and a passenger capacity of 1,200. Two of these vessels will be deployed on the San Francisco and Los Angeles routes. The estimated cost of the two vessels is 25-30 billion yen.
(Omitted).
The Japan Shipowners' Association, the Shipbuilders' Association of Japan, and other industry groups have submitted requests for the construction of passenger ships. The Japanese American Chamber of Commerce in Honolulu and Los Angeles also sent a letter of request to the prime minister.
The Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism), with the strong backing of Chairman Tanaka and these requests, drew up a budget plan for FY1959 that included 1 billion yen for the general account and 1.375 billion yen for the fiscal investment and loan. If all went according to plan, the first ship was to be completed in July 1963 and the second in July 1964.
However, a natural disaster really made the dream plan remain a dream.
In September 1959, a ferocious typhoon hit the Kii Peninsula and the Tokai region, leaving more than 5,000 people dead or missing. It was the Isewan Typhoon. Eisaku Sato, the Minister of Finance at the time, decided to allocate the budget allocated for passenger ships to the restoration of damage caused by the Ise Bay typhoon. Thus, the new shipbuilding plan went with the winds of the Ise Bay typhoon.
The leaders of NYK had no choice but to decide that the era of passenger ships had passed in the wake of the jet plane era. They decided to retire the Hikawa Maru and withdraw from the cruise ship business. The harsh reality of economic rationality had finally robbed the sea of its romance.
Fateful Encounter with NYK President Kimio Miyaoka
Kimio Miyaoka, then president of NYK, had a fateful encounter with the Hikawa Maru 15 years before she was retired. His grandfather became an instructor at the Naval Academy during the Civil War (1877) and taught Kantaro Suzuki, who later became prime minister, and Mitsumasa Yonai. My uncle worked on passenger ships for Osaka Merchant Marine and was stationed in Buenos Aires, South America for a long time. From an early age, his grandfather and uncle often took him to ship-viewing ceremonies and to see Osaka Shosen's passenger ships.
Mr. Miyaoka entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo from Shizuoka High School, but it was the middle of the Pacific War. Soon after, he was mobilized as a student and assigned to the Navy, where he was to go on a suicide mission to Okinawa as a navigator. He boarded the destroyer Hibiki, which was escorting the battleship Yamato. However, the Hibiki was damaged by lightning shortly after launching and was forced to drop out of the escort group of destroyers. You never know what will turn out to be your lucky day. The "YAMATO" met a spectacular end, and her escorts shared her fate. The "Hibiki," which had been undergoing repairs in Kure, survived.
The "Hibiki" then headed for Maizuru Harbor to escort cargo ships repatriated by the Kwantung Army from the Korean Peninsula. In Maizuru, Mr. Miyaoka encountered the most beautiful white ship he had ever seen. It was the Hikawa Maru, which at the time was on duty as a hospital ship. The Hibiki laid alongside the Hikawa Maru and was refueled. Mr. Miyaoka and other officers were invited to the Hikawa Maru, where they were given a bath and were served sumptuous meals that were rarely seen during wartime. For Mr. Miyaoka, the experience on NYK's Hikawa Maru left a strong impression and impression on his mind that he would never forget.
After the war ended, Mr. Miyaoka returned to school and graduated in 1948. He then took the employment examination for NYK. His encounter with the Hikawa Maru in Maizuru Harbor was a major motivation for his decision.
When Mr. Miyaoka joined NYK, the Hikawa Maru was the only passenger ship left in Japan. Thirteen years later, NYK completely withdrew from the cruise ship business. How shocking this must have been for Mr. Miyaoka, who joined NYK after the Hikawa Maru.
A quarter of a century had passed since the Hikawa Maru disappeared from the Pacific.
In 1984, Mr. Miyaoka became president of NYK. The following year, the company celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding, and as it approached this milestone year, it launched "NYK21," its long-term strategy for the new century. And as an extension of this strategy, the company dreamed of "launching a cruise ship business. Although 25 years had passed since the retirement of the Hikawa Maru, Mr. Miyaoka must not have forgotten about it for a single moment. It was his dream, and NYK's dream for the 21st century, to build a luxury cruise ship "even better than the Hikawa Maru" and sail around the world's oceans.
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Mr. Miyaoka that appeared serially in the Yomiuri Shimbun ("My Road") from June 13, 1993.
When I gave up the idea of becoming a newspaper reporter because of my mother's opposition, NYK came to my mind. I was deeply impressed by the swan-like beauty of the "Hikawa Maru" I saw in Maizuru harbor during the war.
("Reporter's Question: ...... Mr. Miyaoka has resumed the cruise ship business after a 30-year absence.
(......If I recall correctly, there was some opposition to the idea at first.)
He said, "That's right. ()You must have had some opposition at first. (Laughs.) But when I asked the opinions of younger people, some said, "Britain and Norway are getting into cruise ships, so if we don't do it now, we will lose our chance. It was almost a 50-50 split. It was a time when the yen was strong and the situation was unstable, so I was very worried, but I decided that if half of the employees were in favor, I would give this a try. ____ ___
In fact, Mr. Miyaoka's decision to join NYK was vehemently opposed by his uncle, who had already retired from Osaka Merchant Marine. He was told, "Even if you work until retirement, Japanese shipping will probably never recover to its old level.
Mr. Yotaro Iida, president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, looks back on those days.
When Kentaro Kawamura, who succeeded Mr. Miyaoka and Mr. Nemoto as president of NYK, passed away suddenly, Mr. Yotaro Iida (then president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mr. Yotaro Iida of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (at that time, when he was an advisor to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) mourned Mr. Kawamura's death in a memorial book entitled "Kazehatami: Memories of the Construction of Modern Luxury Cruise Ships". In the book, President Iida's passion for cruise ships can be seen.
__As a student living in Yokohama, I watched ships coming in and out of the harbor from Harbor View Hill and thought that when peace came, the era of cruise ships would surely come. However, after joining the company, I was put in charge of a different department.
Time passed, and I unexpectedly became president of MHI in 1985. The so-called "Plaza Accord" caused the exchange rate from 240 yen to the dollar to fluctuate to 160 yen in one year. It was very difficult for the new president, who had no experience in asamitsu shipbuilding, to get the "red ship" under construction at the Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works, the company's main shipyard. The people of Nagasaki were all worried about whether the new president would be able to get the "red ship" afloat and in operation. In such a difficult situation, he suddenly thought to himself, "Yes, let's build a passenger ship, which I dreamed of in the past. It would be a quick way to persuade NYK, which had a long history of doing business with Mitsubishi. Moreover, the president, Kimio Miyaoka, knew the heart of painting. Fortunately, Mr. Miyaoka is also a Tokyo Prefectural First Grade School graduate and a chic of the same age as myself. Thinking that "the sooner the better, the better," I immediately offered to build him a cruise ship.
The response, however, was surprisingly cool. NYK's view was that building a cruise ship in Japan today would not attract customers. President Miyaoka was accompanied by Kentaro Kawamura, a smart and articulate general manager of the planning department. At that time, the question was whether cruise ships would really be viable in Japan.
The conversation was not going anywhere, but it took about a year to come to a positive conclusion. How much would it cost for NYK to build a passenger ship? How far would NYK be willing to go in order to undertake the construction? After negotiations between Iida and Miyaoka, both old hands with many dreams, and Kawamura, who was 10 years younger than Iida, the three of us began to discuss the matter, and within a short time we had received orders for the Crystal Harmony, a 50,000-ton luxury cruise ship, and the slightly smaller Asuka.
We later tried to win orders for the "Crystal Symphony," the same type as the "Crystal Harmony," but had to abandon the project due to the foreign exchange market.
However, looking back now, the secret stories of building passenger ships that Mr. Miyaoka and Mr. Kawamura taught me will remain as unforgettable memories. I am deeply moved by the graceful appearance of the modern cruise ship, which is the culmination of all the technology we have accumulated, and I am reminded once again of every single frame of the construction process, which was carried out in silence. ____
NYK and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries: The "bond of manhood" between two presidents
I believe that NYK's entry into the cruise ship business was made possible by the strong will to "build the world's most advanced cruise ship in Japan," a promise made by the two men, then NYK president Kimio Miyaoka, who wanted to operate cruise ships, and then Mitsubishi Heavy Industries president Yotaro Iida, who wanted to build the ships.
In Japan's shipbuilding industry, which is suffering from a shipbuilding recession, we want to somehow overcome this and improve our image. This was all Mr. Iida of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was thinking about every day. Mr. Miyaoka also used to say at the time, "Now, Mr. Iida can cooperate with us. Mr. Miyaoka always said, "Now, Mr. Iida will cooperate with us.
The resonance of Mr. Miyaoka's and Mr. Iida's passion. Without this harmony, NYK would never have been able to launch its cruise ship business in the U.S. market.
On the other hand, Mr. Miyaoka also believed that it was not necessary to stick to Japanese shipyards for the construction of new cruise ships. In fact, he was even concerned that Japanese shipyards, which had not built passenger ships for a long time, would have the know-how to do so. It was then that Mr. Iida came to visit Mr. Miyaoka. Mr. Iida had already received information that NYK was moving forward with the construction of passenger ships under Mr. Miyaoka's direction. Mr. Miyaoka and Mr. Iida had known each other for a long time and met frequently at meetings. It seems that Mr. Iida's purpose was to ask Mr. Miyaoka if he would allow MHI to build a new ship.
I heard that Mr. Iida was motivated to join MHI because he wanted to build a luxury cruise ship. The year was 1985, one year later than Mr. Miyaoka, who became president. The year of his appointment was 1985, one year later than that of Mr. Miyaoka, who became president of MHI. Unlike when Mr. Iida joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, there was no atmosphere within the company or in Japan at that time to build passenger ships.
Nevertheless, Mr. Iida did not give up, and he personally went around to shipping companies to obtain orders for passenger ships. MOL ordered the 23,000-ton "Fuji Maru," which was also built by NYK. This may have been one of the factors that prompted NYK to restart its cruise ship business.
However, Mr. Iida was not satisfied with "Fuji Maru. It seems that his biggest target was NYK. After all, NYK had a history of building passenger ships with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries before the war. It must have been Mr. Iida's dream to build a world-class luxury cruise ship for NYK. At that time, NYK had decided to open a cruise ship preparation office under the leadership of Mr. Miyaoka. It was impossible for Mr. Iida not to get excited.
One day, not long after he went to Mr. Miyaoka and said, "We would love to build a new ship for you. I later heard that Mr. Iida himself delivered a model of a passenger ship to Mr. Miyaoka. The model contained the message, "We would like to build a ship of this model, what do you think? Needless to say, the model contained the message, "We would like to build a ship of this model, how would you like it?
When Mr. Miyaoka saw the model, he was not convinced.
It was a one-meter-long model of the Asama Maru II, a slightly updated version of the Asama Maru, a passenger ship built by NYK before World War II. He said, "It's hard to ask such an old-fashioned company to do such a thing. Mr. Miyaoka and his colleagues at NYK had already moved away from the prewar cruise ships like the Asama Maru, and had envisioned a modern cruise ship like the ones used in the United States and Europe. However, is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' idea still the Asama Maru...?
The passion of these two presidents is detailed in "Voyage of Brilliance" (Sanae Sato).
It also introduces the "Asama Maru II," which Mr. Miyaoka laughed at.
President __Iida is going to NYK to pick up an order for a cruise ship, and he says he will bring a model of the ship as a souvenir. The order to design a replica of the ship was immediately sent to Nagasaki.
The engineers at the Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries wanted to create a new type of luxury cruise ship with a streamlined design and no smokestacks. However, there were internal complaints about the design. In particular, Kentaro Aikawa (later president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), who had been researching passenger ships with his subordinates when he was head of the Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works even before the idea of passenger ships came up, was adamantly opposed.
He said, "This kind of ship is no good. Mitsubishi builds luxury cars, not sports cars. Look at the Asama Maru. If you take the chimney out of the Asama Maru, it won't look good. Such a half-joking chimney is not good enough. Mr. Miyaoka is an old-fashioned person, and he would not like it unless the chimney was upright and had a double pull," he said. In the end, they replaced it with a majestic old-style passenger ship model with the Asama Maru in mind, which President Iida had to take with him.
Of course, the "Asama Maru II" was not the only thing that caused Mr. Miyaoka and the other members of NYK's cruise ship business to have concerns about Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. At the time, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was too little knowledgeable about modern cruise ships. NYK had already considered the Baltuguira Shipyard in Finland as a prime candidate for the construction of a new ship, and had already requested a design estimate. The two companies differed greatly in the content of their design quotations. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' estimate was fatally high.
Mr. Miyaoka said to President Iida.
Mitsubishi is apparently obsessed with the image of the Asama Maru, so we will get quotes from European shipyards as well, so please be aware of that.
Iida, flustered, tried to dissuade him.
If you do that, Iwasaki Yataro will be forced to leave the shipyard. If you do that, the ghost of Yataro Iwasaki will appear at Mr. Miyaoka's bedside when he sleeps at night. In fact, Yataro Iwasaki created Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) in order to establish a shipping company. Shipping and shipbuilding go hand in hand, and yet the shipping company had European shipyards build its ships. Yataro Iwasaki would have risen from his grave if he had ordered even a passenger ship.
It was no longer a bitter pill to swallow. After this, however, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is said to have begun intense, tearful research, second only to modern cruise liners. All in order to win orders for new ships from Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK).
Not wanting to lose to Western shipping companies and MOL
The environment surrounding NYK at the time was one of unprecedented deficits in the world of container transport, NYK's core business. To enter the cruise ship business under such circumstances, which required even greater investment and without accumulated knowledge, must have seemed insane to the other executives.
After the decision was made to move forward with this project, Mr. Miyaoka invited us and other U.S. executives to a private room at Imahan, a restaurant in the basement of a building in Yurakucho. At that table, he often shared with us his thoughts on the decision he had made in his heart to enter the cruise ship business.
He said, "When the containership business (NYK's top priority business) was in the red, the decision to enter the cruise ship business, which requires a huge investment, could have been made by an old-timer like myself, who had been president (and later chairman). It was not only nostalgia for the Hikawa Maru that prompted him to revive the cruise business, but also the situation of Japanese seafarers suffering from the strong yen (he was carrying out major rationalization) and his awareness of MOL, NYK's longtime rival.
I believe that if the two companies work hard and stimulate each other, the market now dominated by European and U.S. cruise ship operators will be able to capture even a portion of the market as a Japanese cruise ship operator. As a Japanese shipping company, we do not want to be outdone by Western shipping companies. If we miss this opportunity, future opportunities will be far away. Even NYK's current core business, container shipping, may be replaced by cheaper countries. We need to invest now in areas of business that will grow significantly in 30 or 50 years' time," he said.
MOL and NYK have been rivals on the world's oceans since before World War II. While NYK has handled European and North American routes, MOL is famous for its South American routes. In 1973, MOL MII completed its last Brazilian emigrant transport service with the first Nippon Maru (Nippon Maru), which made the round-the-world trip, but then MOL MII established a new company, MOL MII Passenger Ship, which operated the Nippon Maru and "New Sakura Maru" to continue the cruise ship business.
Furthermore, MOL announced the introduction of a new ship, the "Fuji Maru. This new vessel was not the Hikawa Maru-type liner cruise ship that had been envisioned in Japan up to that time, but rather Japan's first "cruise liner" with a strong leisure cruise flavor.
At the time, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) had begun to form a number of subsidiaries in the long-distance ferry business, far outstripping NYK. The "Fuji Maru" appeared in the market as if to add to MOL's success. It was not an easy task for NYK to be behind Mitsui O.S.K. Lines in the cruise ship sector as well. The sense of crisis that NYK felt must have been more than "shudder.
At the time, many of NYK's customers in the cargo transport field did not have training centers. There was a reasonable expectation that there would be demand for the use of cruise ships for corporate employee training, incentives, and other business activities. If NYK could build a cruise ship "better than Fuji Maru" by combining charter cruises and leisure cruises, it could compete with MOL on an equal footing. For NYK, this was, in a sense, a project that would bring the company back from the brink.
