-The Port of Nagoya established the Urgent Measures Commission.
The Urgent Measures Commission was established by the Port of Nagoya on January 23, 2009, with the aim of strengthening the Port's international competitiveness amid the global economic downturn.  The Chairman of the Commission is Executive Vice President of the Nagoya Port Authority, and constituent members are directors of each department of the Nagoya Port Authority.  The Commission has been considering effective measures to counter a drop in cargo traffic and a reduction in the numbers of ports of call by shipping companies.
The Port of Nagoya is the first of the nation's ports to undertake such a project to counteract the effects of the economic crisis reflecting global recession.
Concrete measures which are currently under review are:
1.Expansion of the exemption of port dues for large container vessels weighing 40,000 G/T and over in order to maintain container trunk trade lanes
2.Strengthening domestic port sales to secure cargo traffic at the Port of Nagoya
In response to the port users' demands and suggestions, the Commission also set up the Port of Nagoya Exclusive Consulting Office for Port Users.
The Commission will further aim for immediate implementation of these measures in cooperation with port related organizations both public and private.

-Nagoya maintains the top position among Japanese ports in terms of trade value for eight years in a row!
On January 23, the Nagoya Customs released provisional trade statistics for 2008.  The report indicates that the total trade value (sum of import and export values passing through the Port of Nagoya last year) reached 16.36 trillion Japanese yen, and was once again the largest amount among all ports in Japan, for the eighth consecutive year.  However, the value itself decreased, for the first time in nine years, by 2.3% from 2007.
For the first half of the year, the trade value marked a healthy increase.  In February, for example, the total export value including the cargo value passing through the Central Japan International Airport was the highest among all Japanese ports, and in March, the total value of automobiles shipped from the Port marked a record high.  Nevertheless, in the second half of the year, both the import and export trade value drastically decreased under the influence of a difficult economic background and a global economic downturn.
The details of the respective export and import trade are as follows.
The export trade value decreased by 5.3% from the previous year, down to 11.9 trillion Japanese yen.  This came mainly from a drop in exports associated with automobiles and automobile parts, reflecting the severe recession.
On the other hand, import trade value reached 5.3 trillion Japanese yen, a record high, increasing of 4.7% over the previous year.  This was strongly influenced by the increase of import value in oil trade, reflecting the high-price of oil and crude oil.