The house flag of Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Tokyo. A flag divided in five horizontal stripes of three white and two red. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn, a rope is attached.

The Nippon Yusen Kaisha shipping company began in 1870 as the Tsukumo Shokai Shipping Company. In 1872 the company was renamed Mitsukawa Shokai, and in 1875 the company began Japan’s first passenger liner service which ran from Yokohama to Shanghai. In 1885 the company merged with Kyodo Unyu Kaisha to become Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The company continued domestic liner service and in 1893 began a service to Bombay to import cotton to Japan. In 1896 a London-based office opened and routes between Japan and Seattle, Europe, and Australia were established.

In the early 1900s the company became a state monopoly, and by the beginning of World War II, it was operating services to South America, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and the US. It suffered heavy losses during the conflict. In 1941 the company operated a fleet of 866,000 gross tons, but by 1945 this had fallen to 155,000. Although the company eventually recovered, it operated without profit from the years 1956-65. The company began focusing less on passenger liners as the demand for them dwindled, and began investing in more ships carrying oil and cars. The company operated Japan’s first container ship, the ‘Hakone Maru’, with routes to California beginning in 1968.

The company continued strong growth in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1989 it even delved into the cruise ship business with its subsidiary Crystal Cruises. The company experienced a public relations setback in 1997 when its taker the ‘Diamond Grace’ ran aground in Tokyo Bay and spilled 15,000 kiloliters of oil into the bay. The following year, the company merged with Showa Line Ltd., and their fleet grew to 535 ships. The company currently operates over 700 vessels and is the tenth largest shipping company in the world.