In April 2005, Japan Ship Technology Research Association (JSTRA) was established by the merger of three associations: the Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan, Japan Marine Standards Association and Japanese Association of the Ship Scrapping Promotion. Since its foundation, JSTRA has been under the guidance of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and supported by The Nippon Foundation and many other maritime organizations. We are enormously indebted to JSTRA’s support members and parties related to maritime affairs for their support and understanding. Thanks to their contributions, the number of support members has grown to about 190 to date.
In the midst of severe international competition, the Japanese maritime industry has played a significant role in taking the initiative and innovating marine transportation as well as maritime safety and security, and conserving the marine environment. It has done so as a global leader by making great commitments to better management. This is a result of mutual cooperation and sound competition by the players in the domestic maritime industry including consigners, marine transport operators, ship-builders and shipboard machinery and equipment suppliers.
The keywords of JSTRA are"ship regulations, standards and R&D."We operate our projects in each area based on comprehensive and strategic approaches through a synergy of these three elements. Some of our projects are closely related to important agendas in international organizations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Such projects include marine transportation of hydrogen vehicles, new generation standards of stability, prevention of air pollution from ships, assessment of environmental impacts of stain-resistant substances and coatings, intra-ship LAN, and improvement of energy efficiency.
Our proactive efforts are directed at a series of technical challenges requiring urgent solutions for the maritime industry such as improvement of logistic efficiency, securing safety and environment protection.
Further, we are promoting the realization of making proposals by Asian countries through co-sponsorship of the Asian Shipbuilding Experts' Forum while striving to enhance the presence of the Japanese maritime industry on a continuous basis. Besides, JSTRA continues to be involved in the FROSIO project (a project to operate the qualification system for coating inspectors that started in 2008) and a project to develop inventories of hazardous materials in ships.
We share the information and results obtained through these activities with a wide range of people via seminars, presentations and the organization’s website and by distributing internet bulletins. In this way, we aim to further improve the quality of our activities by considering the needs of every concerned party.
