Japan Shipbuilder Launches First Ship Following Tsunami Disaster

Yamanishi Corp, located in Tsumami disaster zone, Miyagi Prefecture, launches its first ship 20 months after the destruction.

A 695-ton training ship built by Yamanishi Corp. has been officially launched at the firm's shipyard in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

The disasters cost the company around ¥12 billion. With only ¥1.5 billion in subsidies from the government, the company managed to stay afloat with cooperation from shipbuilders in other parts of Japan, including firms in Shizuoka, Hyogo and Hiroshima prefectures, reports The Japan Times.

Yamanishi was able to draw up a rehabilitation plan in February, under the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan. The plan included a debt waiver of some ¥7.9 billion, covering 99 percent of the company's total debts. But the plan also required Yamanishi to nearly halve its production to two vessels a year. The company was also asked to cut its workforce by 25 percent from the roughly 200 people it employed before the March 11 disasters.

The ship is painted blue, green and orange, the colors used in the flags of the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, with a stripe in brown, the color of the Shimane Prefecture flag.

Source: The Japan Times