The Last Emigrants' Steamer S.S. Nippon Maru

Until the 1960s, migrants left Japan on the so-called "emigration steamers." In the postwar migration movement to South American countries, most of the migrants would customarily embark on board the steamers in Kobe or Yokohama. But, with the advent of air travel, the emigration steamers left the scene. In the affluent 1960s, the boom with a phenomenal economic growth contributed to improve the level as well as the qualities of living in Japan, thereby slowing the flow of overseas migration from Japan markedly. As such being the case, the last emigration steamer S.S. Nippon Maru left Yokohama on February 14,1973. On board that steamer were 285 migrants destined for Brazil. The S.S. Nippon Maru was the remodeled and renamed S.S. Argentina Maru, the second generation vessel of the same name. It is reported that many world cruise passengers were also on board the S.S. Nippon Maru which left Yokohama carrying the last group of emigrants destined for Brazil on that day. The last emigration ship which left Kobe was M.S. Brazil Maru. She left that port on May 3, 1971.