The Bridge between Japan and Panama

The Panama Canal celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014 and is increasingly becoming important for the security of Japan. The Panama Canal is located in the narrowest landmass between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and maintains world trade as a relatively economical, short distance sea route. The expansion of the Panama Canal began in 2007 to enable large vessels to pass through and to construct a third lock gate. This will enable ships with a 49 meter beam, 366 meter length and a draft of 15 meters, for example a ship carrying liquified natural gas, to pass through that were unable to pass through before because of their size.

The extention work will give an greatly impact on business.

In addition, today the freight route from North America takes about 45 days by way of the Cape of Good Hope the southern extremity of Africa to Japan, but can be shortend to about 25 days by passing through the Panama Canal. Due to it if the consumption of vessel fuel is shortend, CO2　discharge will be reduced. And as the total number of transportation seems to became three times, the expectation as the import route of the Shell Gas is raising. In the future, the Panama Canal after extention seems to be used when natural gas including Shell Gas is exported from the eastern coast of North America and Mexico Gulf toJapan. The extention of Panama Canal is very important to Japan.

With the importance of Panama as the hub for Central and South America, and the expansion of the Panama Canal, the main airline of Japan ______ is considering direct flights to Panama.