Japan Marine United, a Japanese shipbuilding company, has launched the first two of a planned fleet of 12 offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The vessels were launched on Thursday (13) during a ceremony held at its shipyard in the city of Yokohama, in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo.
The vessels are part of a new class of ships for the JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force), with the type designation marking its first OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel).
Generally, the Japanese Navy names its vessels after celestial and meteorological phenomena, mountains, rivers, or regions. However, the new class of patrol ships adopted names of trees.
According to information from Naval News, the first ship was named Sakura (さくら) in honor of the cherry blossom (桜), Japan’s national flower. The second vessel was named Tachibana (たちばな), derived from 橘, a type of tree that has existed in Japan since ancient times.
It is worth noting that the names were selected through internal deliberations within the JMSDF and officially approved by the Minister of Defense.
According to the office, construction of Sakura and Tachibana cost around 8.9 billion yen (US$57.7 million) each. However, due to rising prices, the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo requested 28.7 billion yen for the construction of two more vessels in the defense budget for fiscal year 2026.
The launch of the third and fourth ships of the class is scheduled for March 2026. Based on the National Defense Reinforcement Program, formulated in December 2022, the Ministry of Defense plans to acquire 12 patrol vessels over approximately 10 years.
Photo: Kosuke Takahashi — This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
