Kawasaki History

Kawasaki’s origins go back to 1878, when Shozo Kawasaki established Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard in Tokyo. Eighteen years later, in 1896, it was incorporated as Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Ltd.
Born in Kagoshima to a kimono merchant, Shozo Kawasaki became a tradesman at the age of 17 in Nagasaki, the only place in Japan then open to the West. He started a shipping business in Osaka at 27, which failed when his cargo ship sank during a storm. In 1869, he joined a company handling sugar from Ryukyu (currently Okinawa Prefecture), established by a Kagoshima samurai, and in 1893, researched Ryukyu sugar and sea routes to Ryukyu at the request of the Ministry of Finance. In 1894, he was appointed executive vice president of Japan Mail Steam-Powered Shipping Company, and succeeded in opening a sea route to Ryukyu and transporting sugar to mainland Japan.

Having experienced many sea accidents in his life, Kawasaki deepened his trust in Western ships because they were more spacious, stable and faster than typical Japanese ships. At the same time, he became very interested in the modern shipbuilding industry. In April 1878, supported by Masayoshi Matsukata, the Vice Minister of Finance, who was from the same province as Kawasaki, he established Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard on borrowed land from the government alongside the Sumidagawa River, Tsukiji Minami-Iizaka-cho (currently Tsukiji 7-chome, Chuo-ku), Tokyo, a major step forward as a shipbuilder.

Shozo Kawasaki had fully realized that the Company's shipyard needed a drastic increase in capacity since Kawasaki Dockyard was established in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. He planned to construct a dry dock by reclaiming land next to the shipyard. In 1892, a land survey began, and in 1895, boring tests were carried out. After the incorporation of Kawasaki Dockyard, Kojiro Matsukata pursued the plan.
Construction work faced rough going due to the extremely weak foundations of the site on the Minatogawa River delta. After a couple of failures, a new technique was adopted to harden the underwater foundation by pouring concrete. Six years later in 1902, the dry dock was completed at last, costing three times as much and taking three times longer than the construction of a dock under normal conditions.

Size of the dry dock:
Length: 130 m, width: 15.7 m, depth: 5.5 m
Maximum size of ships that can be docked: 6,000 GT

The dry dock (currently No. 1 Dock, Kobe Shipyard) was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Asset of Japan in 1998.

In 1922, Kawasaki completed its first airplane at its Hyogo works, and conducted test flights in Sohara Village (currently Kakamigahara City), Gifu Prefecture. The Japanese Army admitted its excellence based on the test flights, and adopted it for the first military plane, the Type Otsu 1 surveillance plane. Kawasaki manufactured about 300 planes of this type until 1927.

On April 13th 1964, the first Shinkansen by Kawasaki was delivered from the Hyogo factory to the Japanese National Torikai Rail Yards. The train was carried in a trailer on the national highway after midnight.
The trailer traveled at 7km/h, with police cars guiding the whole 6 hour journey from Kobe to Osaka.
Kawasaki’s trains were given the letter R for their set formation and official test runs began between the Torikai Rail Yard and Maibara. On October 1st of that　year, the “Dream Super Express” Shinkansen made possible for travelers to get from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka in 4 hours (3 hours and 10 minutes the next year).

In 1972, the Company unveiled Japan's largest motorcycle of the day, the Kawasaki Z1, featuring an air-cooled, 4-stroke, 4-cylinder, 903 cm³, DOHC engine, which was Kawasaki's first 4-stroke engine with a state-of-the-art, unique mechanism. Code-named "New York Steak" as early as in the development stage, the Z1 became a "mouth-watering motorcycle," winning overwhelming popularity immediately after its introduction, and becoming a long-term bestseller. The Z1, a pioneer of Supersport models, not only solidified Kawasaki's reputation in large motorcycles, but remains deeply engraved in the public conscience as one of the most superlative models to date.

Utilizing its technology and experience in aircraft jet engines, Kawasaki pioneered Japan's gas turbine generator business. In 1972, the Company started developing industrial gas turbines based on its proprietary design. In 1976, the Kawasaki GPS200, Japan's first gas turbine generator, was produced and it attained type approval under the Fire Services Act. The next year, in 1977, the GPS200 won the Minister of Construction prize, top prize at the Electric Equipment Industry Exhibition. Kawasaki went on to expand Japan's market for gas turbine generators. The Company also developed proprietary cogeneration systems, the GPC series, in 1983.

Kawasaki not only aggressively pursued orders for VLCCs (very large crude-oil carriers) and other oil tankers, but also conducted R↦D activities to develop high-value-added ships. One example is its LNG (liquefied natural gas) carriers. In 1971, Kawasaki entered into a technical agreement with Moss Rosenberg Verft A.S. of Norway and accelerated the development of LNG carriers. In 1981, at the Sakaide Works, the Company delivered the Golar Spirit (129,000m³, 93,815 GT), the first LNG carrier ever built in Japan.

Spanning the Strait of Akashi, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge which connects the cities of Kobe and Awaji was the longest single span suspension bridge in the world at the time of its construction, with a total length of 3,910 meters and a distance between the two main towers of 1,990 meters. Kawasaki was the main contractor for the tower on the Awajishima Island side-283 meters tall and over 25,000 tons-which fully utilized its advanced technology for steel structures. The Company also produced and installed stiffening girders.
Following the Onaruto Bridge connecting Awaji Island and Tokushima, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge opened in the spring of 1998, connecting Honshu and Shikoku.

The Taiwan Shinkansen Corporation (TSC), comprising seven Japanese companies including Kawasaki, shipped the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation its first 12-car high-speed train. Taiwan High Speed Rail is the first overseas project to use Japan's Shinkansen technology, and the 700T-model train is the first Shinkansen train ever shipped overseas. The 700T, based on the 700-series Shinkansen train jointly developed by Central Japan Railway Company and Western Japan Railway Company, has been optimally configured for Taiwanese geography, climate, legal regulations, and so forth. It has a maximum speed of 300 km/h and will connect Taipei and Kaohsiung (345 km) in as little as 1.5 hours. While TSC has received orders beyond rolling stock for signaling systems, track, and so forth, Kawasaki was the primary contracting company for rolling stock and has manufactured 30 trains (360 cars) together with Nippon Sharyo Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd.

In 2015, Kawasaki launched the Ninja H2 and the Ninja H2R, high-performance sports models that represents the sum of Kawasaki technologies.

"The Ninja H2 and H2R are the first mass-produced large motorcycles in the world to use the fully in-house designed 998cm³ in-line four-cylinder engine equipped with a mechanical centrifugal supercharger, which delivers unprecedented acceleration and outstanding running stability.

Gas turbine technology was utilized in the development of the supercharger. For the body design, aerodynamic control technology from aircrafts was used to improve stability at high speeds, and gas engine technology was applied to suppress knocking. The company’s latest technology is utilized in every aspect of this model.

Medicaroid, which was formed as a joint venture by Kawasaki and Sysmex Corporation received regulatory approval from the Japanese Ministry for the hinotori^TM Surgical Robot System in 2020.

In recent years, along with the progress of minimally invasive surgery that reduces the burden on the patient, there is a growing need for robotic surgery.

The hinotori^TM supporting smooth surgery consists of three components, the Surgeon Cockpit, Operation Unit, and Vision Unit. Arms of the Operation Unit are designed to be as compact as human arms. The Surgeon Cockpit adopts ergonomic design to fit the postures of surgeons during surgeries. The Vision Unit provides high-definition 3D images on the stereoscopic viewer of the Surgeon Cockpit.

Inheriting the DNA of Kawasaki robots which has a track record of more than 50 years since manufacturing the first domestically produced industrial robot, the hinotori^TM offers excellent support for healthcare professionals at the forefront of medical practice to achieve quality in medicine between patients all over the world.