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NYK Nominated for Heyerdahl International Maritime Environment Prize for 'Safety Activities for Marine Environment'

April 25, 2005

Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) has been nominated, as the first ever Japanese corporation, for the Heyerdahl International Maritime Environment Prize by the Association of Norwegian Ship Owners. NYK was jointly nominated with the Norwegian Knutsen OAS Shipping Company and the winner will be selected from these two companies. The award ceremony will be held on May 19, 2005, at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, Japan, in the presence of Mr. Borge Brende, Minister of Marine Transport in the Kingdom of Norway.

NYK was nominated for this prize due to its highly appraised activities. For example, NYK established a Safety and Environmental Management Committee chaired by NYK President, Koji Miyahara, and, on the base of NYK's own standards for safe vessel operations and environmental preservation activities (see "NAV 9000" below), NYK has been globally committed to safe vessel operations and environmental conservation in cooperation with the owners of chartered vessels and ship management services companies.

Encouraged by this nomination, NYK will make continued commitment to safe vessel operations and global environmental preservation.

Heyerdahl Prize


This prize aims at contributing to improvements in the global environment, broadcasting the advantages of shipping transport on the environment on a wide scale, and promoting the introduction of new environmental conservation tools.

Established in June 1999 by Dr. Thor Heyerdahl and the Association of Norwegian Ship Owners, the prizewinner is selected biannually followed by the biannual award ceremony. The first winner in 2001 was the Green Award Foundation and the second in 2003 was the International Tanker Owners' Pollution Federation. (www.heyerdahlaward.com)

NAV 9000 activity


NAV 9000 is one of NYK's safety management activities, which requests that not only NYK's own ships but also the owners of chartered vessels and ship management services companies comply with NYK's standards for safe operations and environmental preservation, and which also implements periodic audits on the status of their fulfillment and calls on them to make necessary improvements. Up to now since this activity started in 1998, audits have covered a total of 1,818 seagoing vessels and 138 companies and have brought about 12,000 cases of improvements. When nonconformity is found through NAV audits, NYK discusses this in periodic meetings with the parties concerned and communicates this information to all seagoing vessels by means of a safety information publication, "Calm Sea", issued by NYK, which contributes to preventing the recurrence of similar nonconformity.