Japan has launched a new weekly container throughput report covering six of the country’s major ports, aiming to provide a faster picture of changes in international container flows.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) began publishing the new Container Cargo Flow Weekly Report on 18 September, using data collected through Japan’s Cyber Port platform.
The system covers the ports of Tokyo, Kawasaki, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe.
The report provides weekly foreign-trade container volumes for each of the six ports on a TEU basis.
Data are divided into exports, imports and total container throughput. MLIT will also provide comparisons with the previous week, the corresponding week of the previous month and the same week a year earlier.
Volumes across all six ports will also be aggregated, providing a broader indication of changes in container flows through Japan’s major gateways.
Each reporting period will generally cover Monday through Sunday, with the results scheduled for publication by the Friday of the second following week.
According to MLIT, the initiative is designed to allow earlier identification of developments in port logistics and support faster data-based port policy decisions.
The weekly figures are compiled using Cyber Port, Japan’s government-operated digital platform for port logistics and administrative procedures.
MLIT noted that the figures are preliminary and may subsequently be revised.
The data also include empty containers and may differ from preliminary or final statistics published separately through Japan’s official Port Survey.
The weekly report adds a higher-frequency indicator to Japan’s existing port statistics, allowing changes in container trade through the six major ports to be identified significantly earlier than through conventional reporting cycles.
