Tokyo-based Kumiai Senpaku has 18 ships on the water — eight bulk carriers, three LPG carriers, three ro-ros and four asphalt/bitumen tankers. Its fleet will be nearly halved if it offloads all of its bulkers in an exit from the sector.

But that does not mean it will be cut off from dry cargo business altogether.

Its subsidiary, Kumiai Navigation, has 19 vessels: 12 bulkers, five VLGCs and two pressurised LPG carriers. It also has a supramax bulker and a pair of VLGC newbuildings under construction.

Kumiai Navigation, set up in 1995, was one of the few Japanese shipping companies to establish a presence in Singapore at that time. Growth ambitions and Singapore's low corporate tax were the two factors that led it to be registered outside of Japan.

Kumiai Navigation operates independently of its parent, and will be shouldering an ever bigger role in building the group's shipping business in coming years, according to its parent's president, Nobutaka Mukae.

"I have no intention [of recruiting] additional people for Kumiai Senpaku," Mukae said. "The Tokyo office will continue to be here as the holding company for the group, but core shipping activities will be shifted to Singapore under Kumiai Navigation."

Kumiai Senpaku was founded in 1972 by Toyoshige Shiraishi. Once a family-owned outfit, 40% of its shares are now owned by government funds.

Chikako Yoneda, daughter of the founder, still holds around a 5% stake and the remaining shares are held by company directors.

Mukae said Kumiai Senpaku is "not your normal privately owned Japanese company that would pass on from generation to generation and keep the wealth within the family.

"The owner, Yoneda, made a very bold move by selling her shares to government funds and allowing the company's employees to be shareholders.

"This arrangement may ease the complexity of share transfers in the future for her and, at the same time, allow Kumiai Senpaku to continue to exist in Japan."