The Japanese government will take active measures this year to reduce by 30-40 per cent the cost of using its main ports, as it seeks to arrest a dramatic drop in their competitiveness, a Transport Ministry official said on Thursday.

Japanese ports - currently the most costly to use in Asia - have lost market share in recent years to Asian rivals such as Pusan in South Korea and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. In terms of the volume of container cargo handled, Kobe, one of the country’s major ports, ranked fourth in the world in 1980, but slipped to 27th in 2002.