Container Operations at Japan’s Hachinohe Port Disrupted by Quake

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:41 JST, December 15, 2025

Cargo operations at Hachinohe Port in Aomori Prefecture have been severely disrupted by the earthquake that struck Dec. 8, and it is unclear when the logistics base in the northern area of the Tohoku region will be able to resume full operations.

The quake, which had its epicenter off the east of the prefecture, severely damaged a road at the port’s container terminal. One-third of the road was rendered unusable.

About 500 cargo containers cannot be transported from the port, and it is unknown when they can be moved out.

The company managing the container terminal resumed cargo operations on Friday, but the work has to be conducted within a limited space. It is therefore feared that the damage will negatively impact logistics from now on.

The C area of the container terminal was built as an additional facility in 2018 and accounts for one-third of the acreage of the terminal. As a result of the quake, numerous cracks appeared on the surface of the C area’s asphalt road. The surface has rippled, rising about 20 centimeters in places and sinking more than five centimeters in others.

Hachinohe Port is one of the important ports designated by the government. The first regular international cargo ship route to the port opened in the Tohoku region in 1994, and since then, Hachinohe Port has been the gateway for exports and imports in the region.

The port handled about 27 million tons of cargo in 2023, according to the Hachinohe Port Logistics Globalization Promotion Council, which comprises the Aomori prefectural government, the Hachinohe city government and port business operators.

Paper and pulp are exported mainly to South Korea through the port, while miscellaneous daily goods from China are transported to the port via South Korea. Hachinohe Port also receives housing materials, such as lumber, from the Philippines.

Hachinohe Kowan Unso Kaisha Ltd. manages and operates the container terminal. It resumed handling cargo on Friday, but only two-thirds of the space in the terminal can be used due to quake damage.

“We have to handle the same number of cargo containers as before in a narrower space, so we’re struggling,” a chief of the company’s container terminal section said.

The undulated parts of the road make it impossible for heavy machinery for lifting and carrying containers to enter the C area. Each of the machines weighs about 60 tons.

Thus, it has been unable to transport about 500 cargo containers from the container terminal.

About one-fifth of the containers contain cargo. Empty containers were scheduled to be returned to shipping companies and others, and then reused for exports.

The cracks and other damage on the road are believed to have reached underground areas below the containers.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry also dispatched its Technical Emergency Control Force (TEC-FORCE) to the port and conducted inspections from Wednesday.

Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita inspected the container terminal on Friday.

“This seems to be the most severe damage to infrastructure in the prefecture. If the impact continues for long, users of the port may decrease,” Miyashita said. “The prefectural government will fully cooperate to minimize the negative impacts on logistics.”