The Nippon Foundation MEGURI2040 Fully Autonomous Ship ProgramAiming to implement fully autonomous navigation to support the ocean of the future

The Nippon Foundation MEGURI2040 Fully Autonomous Ship Program is leading the world in carrying out demonstration testing of fully autonomous navigation for coastal shipping, and through the success of this testing, seeks to create further opportunities for technological development in this field, promote innovation in Japan’s logistics, economy and social platforms, and support related technological development.

Significance of The Nippon Foundation MEGURI2040 Fully Autonomous Ship Program

With Japan today experiencing a contracting, aging population, shortages of human resources are emerging in a wide variety of fields. Coastal shipping, with its challenging work environment, is no exception, and with more than half of coastal shipping crew members over the age of 50, this is becoming a major issue. In addition, Japan has roughly 400 inhabited offshore islands, many of which are visited by ships only twice a day, in the morning and evening. Maintaining these offshore routes has therefore become a critical issue in the daily lives of those inhabitants. In addition, human error is said to be involved in 70-80% of maritime accidents, making accident reduction an issue as well.

We believe that fully autonomous navigation is one way to address these social issues.

These demonstration tests have the following specific objectives, and are also expected to revitalize and enhance the competitiveness of the shipping industry and related industries.

1. Advance the technological capabilities of related industries (including through participation from other fields)
2. Play a leading role in establishing international standards for fully autonomous navigation
3. Create a greater sense of security (social acceptance) toward fully autonomous navigation (including giving children of the future dreams of working in maritime industries)

Meaning of ‘MEGURI2040’

Practical implementation of fully autonomous navigation will improve the flow of goods, people, costs, and traffic, thereby creating greater convenience. The program’s name conveys the concept of “Improving Japan’s circulation,” which is seen as the program’s main benefit, and the name meguri is a Japanese word for “flow.”

Aiming for practical implementation by 2025

Demonstration testing of autonomous driving has been moving forward, primarily in the automotive sector, but sea navigation presents technological challenges in terms of telecommunications infrastructure between land and sea and obstacle avoidance, as well as the economic challenge of high development costs, and as a result there has been almost no development to date in the field of fully autonomous navigation for seagoing vessels. At the same time, Japan is a world leader in terms of advanced technologies in areas including the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and image analysis. Therefore, joint technological development by multiple private-sector companies that possess these technologies opens up possibilities for dramatic advances in technological development for fully autonomous navigation.

Stage 1 of the project successfully conducted demonstration testing of six vessels by five consortia, including in Tokyo Bay, from 2020 to 2022.

Stage 2 is being carried out from 2023 to 2026, using four vessels to improve operations in areas that were identified as challenges in Stage 1, including the improvement of collision-avoidance and auto berthing/un-berthing technology.

Demonstration tests of autonomous navigation by the five consortia were successfully completed in Stage 1

The five consortia developed new equipment, systems, technologies, and frameworks toward conducting demonstration tests by March 2022. Japan is expected to become a world leader in these industries. These tests were the world’s first demonstrations using large vessels navigating over long distances through congested sea lanes.

1. Designing the Future of Full Autonomous Shipping: Grand design drawn by diverse specialists

Project overview and development status

More than 30 Japanese companies worked together to develop a fully autonomous navigation system for container ships. The consortium took an open-innovation approach with the aim of practical implementation. A land-based Fleet Operation Center was also being built in Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture, for remote operations in emergency situations.

2. Verification testing of fully autonomous technologies using coastal container vessels and car ferries

Project overview and development status

The consortium developed fully autonomous navigation systems for container ships and ferries. For ferries, this included an automated navigation function for within the harbor, including automated berthing and unberthing, and mooring support using drones developed for container ships.

3. Development of fully autonomous amphibious driving technology: Yanba Smart Mobility

Project overview and development status

A fully autonomous navigation system was developed for an amphibious vessel at Yanba Dam in Gunma Prefecture. Building on autonomous driving for an automobile, this enabled fully autonomous navigation on water. Local 5G infrastructure was used for telecommunications to develop a land-based monitoring and operation system as well.

4. Fully autonomous navigation at Sarushima, Yokosuka

Project overview and development status

A system was developed for fully autonomous navigation of a small tourism boat navigating between a pier in Yokosuka and Sarushima island. This included the development of a system using three cameras to detect other vessels and avoid them automatically.

5. Smart ferry development

Project overview and development status

Development was carried out for a newly built ship equipped with a fully autonomous navigation system that operated as a ferry between Shinmoji, Kitakyushu City, and Yokosuka.

Stage 2 begins with truly all-Japan consortium of more than 50 companies aiming to implement fully autonomous navigation by 2025

Stage 2 of the project began in the fall of 2022 with the aim of raising fully autonomous navigation to a level that makes a certain level of automation possible (equivalent to Level 4 for self-driving automobiles).

With the aim of “Practical implementation of fully autonomous navigation by 2025,” the project is pursuing challenges in the three areas of all-Japan technologies, regulations, and social understanding.

1. July 2025 ~
   Remote island passenger ferry Olympia Dream Seto
   Development: Japan Marine Science and seven other companies
2. July 2025 ~
   Container vessel Mikage
   Development: Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and four other companies
3. September 2025 ~
   RO-RO vessel Hokuren Maru No. 2
   Development: Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and three other companies
4. November 2025 ~
   Container vessel (newly built)
   Development: MTI and 15 other companies

Stage 2 making preparations for demonstration testing of four vessels

1. Olympia Dream Seto: Aiming to become star of safe and exciting remote island routes

Japan Marine Science, Kokusai Ryobi Ferry, and six other companies are working as part of the MEGURI2040 project to address the issue of sustainability in coastal transport and shipping routes against the backdrop of an aging and contracting population. The ferry operating between Japan’s main island of Honshu and the island of Shodoshima is particularly affected by this trend, and the project is pursuing the challenge of using autonomous navigation systems to maintain these remote island routes.

An aging, contracting population raises the likelihood of a decline in ship crews. Many crew members on remote island routes are from the area the route serves, and there is a possibility of crew shortages on these routes. This will make reduced service on remote island routes unavoidable, inconveniencing the people who live in these areas. This in turn could lead to further population decline and industries moving elsewhere. Autonomous navigation systems would reduce crews’ workloads, helping to maintain the frequency of service on these routes and creating increased possibilities for nighttime navigation, and is seen being able to contribute to the continued development of Japan’s almost 300 remote island routes.

2. Container ship Mikage: Piloting support integrating navigators’ seamanship abilities and autonomous navigation technologies

With crews aging and declining numbers of young crew members, crew shortages are becoming a serious issue for Japan’s domestic coastal shipping, while the amount of work performed by individual crew members is increasing as well. In response, efforts are being made to develop automation technologies to reduce crews’ workloads and facilitate safer navigation, with the following specific aims:

• Use autonomous navigation technologies to support ship operations, thereby reducing crews’ workloads.
• Incorporate the knowledge and expertise of experienced crew in autonomous navigation technologies to support ship operations carried out by young crew members.
• Integrate crews’ seamanship abilities and autonomous navigation technologies to achieve safer navigation.

The increased use of autonomous navigation technologies is expected to eliminate crew shortages in coastal shipping and support the preservation and development of the coastal shipping industry. This sector, which is essential to the daily lives of people in Japan, holds the key to advances in navigation automation technologies.

3. Hokuren Maru No. 2: Aiming to create unmanned and autonomous navigation technologies that lead to the future

Three companies – Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Japan Radio, and YDK Technologies – are retrofitting the existing Ro-Ro container ship Hokuren Maru No. 2 (operated by Kawasaki Kinkai Kisen Kaisha*) with unmanned and autonomous navigation functions.

This initiative is using the research and development expertise in safe navigation and various navigation instruments, the working group’s strength, to have systems carry out navigation operations that to date have been performed by humans (recognition, information management, analysis, planning, execution). Using the latest artificial intelligence and other technologies in crisis decisions while the ship is operating, the group is developing an autonomous navigation system that is close to the navigation operations performed by humans. The working group’s activities going forward will eliminate the labor shortage facing Japan’s coastal shipping industry and reduce workloads, prevent accidents at sea, and resolve social issues including remote island shipping routes. This is being jointly promoted through MEGURI2040 by The Nippon Foundation and the member companies of the Designing the Future of Full Autonomous Ship (DFFAS) Consortium, and cooperating organizations in Japan.

4. New container vessel: Newly built autonomous vessel aiming for autonomous navigation by 2040

With MEGURI2040 Stage 2 aiming for social implementation, a new 700 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container vessel is being developed for autonomous navigation that will enable autonomous commercial navigation after demonstration testing has been completed. In concrete terms, this will lead to the realization of future autonomous navigation in which navigation from wharf to wharf is fully automated, the ship’s engine plant is remotely monitored by an onshore Fleet Operation Center, and navigational support reduces the crew’s workload. If this is successful, it can be seen addressing the so-called “2024 issue” in logistics (labor shortages resulting from caps on overtime by truck drivers and ship crew members that took effect in 2024) and helping to strengthen logistics in Japan. The Fleet Operation Center will also be staffed by ships’ crews, creating a new work-style option for crew members who currently are unable to return home at the end of each workday. Specifically, development will include camera sensors that can make visual observations in place of crew members, functions to improve the reliability of sensors, give-way planning functions that use sensor data, ship control functions that achieve seamless operations from leaving the wharf to ordinary navigation to docking, functions that allow mooring operations to be carried out with fewer crew members, functions to detect abnormalities in the ship’s engine plant so that the ship’s equipment can be monitored from shore, and ship-to-shore telecommunications functions that operate continuously and economically. The new container vessel for which these functions are being developed is being built by Kyokuyo Shipyard Corp. and is scheduled to be put into service in roughly October 2025, after which autonomous navigation is scheduled to be implemented for demonstration testing and commercial navigation.

Better understanding of autonomous navigation through public awareness activities for future generations

The Nippon Foundation is traveling to various areas to hold seminars and other events to share with future generations the future that autonomous navigation holds.

Automation technologies are seen playing an increasingly important role in maritime industries going forward by creating a broad range of new possibilities for ship operations.

We are studying the latest trends, opportunities, and issues in ship automation, and will share the future of marine transport and shipping in the digital age.