Superyacht Base Kobe will take its first superyachts in spring 2027, and the clubhouse, restaurant and owners' lounge will follow in 2028, the operating company announced on 21 October. Kobe city hall picked the project in December 2024, and its selection panel described it as the first marina in Japan built specifically for superyachts. Seven companies hold the venture, among them the Taiwanese yard Horizon and the yacht agent SYL Japan.
Japan has the geography for it: 29,751 km of coastline, according to the Asia-Pacific Superyacht Association (APSA), and 14,125 islands by the government's 2023 count. Recorded visits, though, have run at ten to twenty a year. The company's own reason for building in Kobe is that Japan has few places where a superyacht can stay longer than a few days without worry, and the earliest dates for changing that come from Kobe and a second project in Yokosuka.
What will Superyacht Base Kobe offer?
The marina is built and run by a private company that holds a 30-year concession. The basin lies between the Shinko No. 1 and No. 2 piers in Kobe's Chuo ward.
The October release gives no berth numbers or sizes. The bid the city accepted in 2024 listed about 20 berths for owners' yachts of 23–40 m and about 10 guest berths for yachts of up to 61 m. APSA described a bigger set-up that same month: more than 1.4 km of quay, stern-to berthing for yachts of up to about 80 m and room alongside for any length.
G-LION leads the group, and Creation Co., a superyacht agent with a repair base in Osaka, will build and run the marina. SYL Japan is the ship's agent, Horizon and SYL Monaco bring overseas contacts, Setouchi Brand Corporation handles the Inland Sea side and Plan・Do・See the restaurants. Yachtzoo, the project's official support company, will open an office in the marina and sell long-term berth leases.
Kobe is meant as the way into the Seto Inland Sea, with cruising routes to Awaji, Shodoshima, Takamatsu and Onomichi. In May 2026 Kobe already hosted the Asia-Pacific Superyacht Summit.
The opening date has slipped twice. In 2023 Nigel Beatty, founder of SYL Japan and chairman of APSA, said the city wanted a simple facility working before Expo 2025. In December 2024 the city planned a partial opening during construction in 2025–26 and the opening in spring 2027, and APSA spoke the same month of service for yachts from 2026 and a full opening in 2027. The current schedule, published in the October press release, moves both stages back by about a year.
What Japan has changed for foreign yachts
Under article 3 of Japan's Ship Act, a foreign vessel needs a special permit from the transport minister to enter any port outside the official ports of entry, and it may not carry people or cargo between Japanese ports.
In March 2019 the transport ministry set up a superyacht council with immigration, customs, the coast guard and other agencies. Owners used to apply for each port seven days ahead; one application to the ministry now covers calls at any Japanese port for up to a year. Since 16 December 2021 a yacht of 24 m or more can switch to domestic status after its first clearance and cruise on an itinerary filed with customs. Crew got a multiple-entry shore pass for the whole stay, where it used to cover 14 days, Megayacht News reported at the time. Kenta Inaba, president of SYL Japan, called the reform "a great leap forward".
Charter is still closed. The domestic status applies to private yachts only, and the Ship Act still bars foreign vessels from carrying passengers between Japanese ports. In 2024 Inaba urged the government to review the charter rules. A year earlier Beatty had named clear charter rules as SYL Japan's next lobbying goal: "It's one of those things that could happen in two months, or it could happen in a year."
How many superyachts visit Japan?
About 1.5% of the world superyacht fleet visited Japan between 2015 and 2018, by MarineTraffic data cited by SuperyachtNews. A transport ministry paper put the number at 10 in 2018. In 2019, 19 came, Toyo Keizai reported.
In 2025, 586 yachts over 30 m cruised the Asia-Pacific, up from 445 in 2023, and 236 of them were visiting from abroad, according to ICOMIA and SuperYacht Times. Australia led with 150 yachts, and Hong Kong and Thailand shared fifth and sixth place with 87 each. Japan is not in the top six.
A transport ministry paper from 2019 recorded a 91.5 m yacht spending 45 million yen (about 255,000 euros) in 30 days. Inaba puts the spend at 15–25 million yen a month (about 85,000–140,000 euros) for a yacht staying two or three months. One yacht he cited planned three weeks in Japan and stayed more than seven months, calling at 66 ports.
Which other ports are preparing for superyachts?
| Project | Who | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Superyacht Base Kobe | Seven-company consortium, Kobe city | First yachts spring 2027, full opening 2028 |
| Uraga, Yokosuka | Index Co. and its 17-company TeamPerry's consortium, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Yokosuka city | Construction from 2027, phased opening from 2029 |
| Osaka | Osaka prefecture and city | Trial cruise in September 2025, no marina date |
| Yonabaru, Okinawa | Okinawa prefecture | Berth and breakwater planned in 2022 |
The Yokosuka project, on the site of the former Uraga shipyard, is put at more than 100 billion yen (about 570 million euros). It adds a hotel, housing and a helipad; its marina is to take both vessels over 160 feet (49 m) and smaller superyachts. Index president Koichi Uemura told Nikkei the aim is to become Japan's gateway for the world's 8,000 superyachts.
For now the largest yacht marina in the country, Yokohama Bayside Marina, takes boats of up to 45.7 m. Anything bigger makes short calls at cruise terminals in Tokyo and Yokohama, and a 119 m yacht once tied up at Yokohama's Shinko pier. Inaba said in 2024 that "we need to keep up with the appropriate infrastructure for the bigger yachts".
Weather sets the calendar. About 11.7 typhoons approach Japan in an average year and three make landfall, most often in August and September, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. APSA gives the cruising season as April to October, with year-round cruising only in the far south around Okinawa.
In Nagasaki the quays have no pontoons and no water supply. The prefecture's port office notes that cruise ships can be courted through their operators, while superyacht calls depend on reputation and word of mouth among owners and crews.
Photo: Balon Greyjoy / Wikimedia Commons (CC0); rendering: Tomohiro Hata Architect & Associates / Super Yacht Base Kobe. Source: Super Yacht Base Kobe Co. (PR Times), Kobe City Port and Harbor Bureau, Marina World, APSA, YachtBuyer, ICOMIA / SuperYacht Times, MLIT, Japan Customs, Megayacht News, Asia Pacific Boating, Nikkei, KAZI, Toyo Keizai, SuperyachtNews, Nagasaki Shimbun, Ryukyu Shimpo, Norimono News, Marine Industry News, Superyacht Services Guide, Yacht Style, Japan Meteorological Agency, Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.
