60 years in Japan

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60 years in Japan

60 years of Rolls-Royce in Japan

2024 marks 60 years since Rolls-Royce opened its first office in Japan – cementing a long relationship of supporting the country’s civil aerospace and defence capabilities.

In the decades since, our partnerships and customer base in the region have grown alongside Japan’s ambitions to operate strong maritime, air transport, patrol and training programmes as well as capable and reliable civil transport.

To mark this anniversary, we’ve looked back at some of the milestones achieved since then and the partners who’ve help to make them possible.

Helping shape Japan’s defence forces

Our relationship with Japan’s defence forces goes back over 120 years to the launch of the Mikasa battleship, supplied from the Vickers shipyard in the UK to the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Since then, we’ve continued to provide key technologies to the country’s defence programmes and become a market leader for aero transport in Japan, with our defence engines powering a number of indigenous aircraft types as well as others made by foreign manufacturers.

T-1

The first Japanese Rolls-Royce office opened in Tokyo as we began to supply Japan’s Defense Agency with our Orpheus gas turbines to power the T-1 trainer, the first jet aircraft developed in Japan (by Fuji Heavy Industries) since World War II.

Powering maritime defence

More than 100 of our gas turbine engines support the JMSDF, making them one of our largest operators in the world. Our MT30 gas turbine is selected to power 12 Mogami Class ships, the 12 New FFMs and the ASEV.

The engine will be packaged by our long-term partner Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Since we started powering JS Ishikari ship with our Olympus gas turbine in the 1980s, KHI has worked with us to supply around 200 naval gas turbines to the JMSDF.

Japan’s first turboprop airliner

Post WWII, demand grew for a short and middle-haul commercial airliner to transport Japanese passengers around the region.

A consortium of Japanese companies including the likes of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries was formed in the late 1950s to start work on the development of the aircraft.

Alongside the capacity for 60 passengers, the aircraft had to be able to take off and land on a 1,200 metre runway and have a flight range of 600 nautical miles (roughly 1,100 kilometres). To meet these challenging requirements, the Rolls-Royce Dart was selected to power the aircraft, thanks to having the thrust and reliability to meet Japan’s needs.

The aircraft which became known as the YS-11 had its first flight in 1962. It went on to support local airlines like All Nippon Airways and Japan Domestic Airlines. YS-11 was also operated by global commercial airlines across Asia, in the USA, South America, Africa and beyond, as well as military operations carried out by the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

A growing legacy

Today, our presence in Japan has grown to 13 different locations and is supported by 60 colleagues and thousands more working on Rolls-Royce programmes through our partner organisations.

Japan is a key Defence customer for Rolls-Royce, and we currently provide and support engines to all three Self Defense Forces (Land, Sea and Air) plus the Coast Guard. We have around 700 aero engines installed across the Japanese government’s fleet.

Rolls-Royce powers key wide body fleets for the 2 major Japanese airlines and the engines have contributed significantly to the airlines’ operation with their high dispatch reliability, low fuel consumption and excellent environmental performance.

Rob Watson, President – Civil Aerospace, said:

Japan has been such an important partner for Rolls-Royce through the decades for all our businesses and the future looks very bright too. In civil aerospace we are very proud of our relationships with All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, we have important industrial relationships with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and IHI, and we’ve always benefited from the deep technological and industrial depth that Japan has to offer. We’re looking forward to another 60 years to come.”

Alex Zino, EVP Business Development & Future Programmes UK and International, Defence said:

Huge congratulations to the Rolls-Royce Japan team for the 60th anniversary of the business in Japan. We’re proud to be the number one provider of power and propulsion to Japan’s Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces. With the Global Combat Air Programme [GCAP] developing fast, the future continues to look very bright for Rolls-Royce in Japan and I am sure there will be 60+ years where we will continue to grow and deepen our strategic partnerships.”

Susumu Kaminaga, President of Rolls-Royce Japan, said:

This year marked the 60^th anniversary of our presence in Japan and I am grateful to celebrate this significant milestone with customers, partners and employees working in Japan and across the world. It was 60 years ago when indigenous development had ramped up after WWII. One of the early models developed was the YS-11 turboprop for civil and T-1 jet trainer for defence markets, for which Rolls-Royce Dart and Orpheus engines were selected to power these aircrafts. Ever since, Japanese aviation and naval industries have trusted and selected our power solutions for their key products to date. We really value these relationships and we look forward to the next 60 years in Japan.”

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