"Japan must go with a new motto - All Japan - people should not be too selfish about themselves. Make sure everybody goes in one right direction, consolidation is something we cannot avoid," said Tokyo Century Corporation's shipping general manager Jigo Hayashi.

"We all have to work together, I am strong advocate of All Japan, the shipping community must all form as one community," he said.

"Japan's presence in shipping has been diminishing and the reason is this country is not taking one single approach," Mr Hayashi said.

"The Japanese government will need to take a holistic approach and it's the shipowners who are taking a step-by-step fragmented approach and is not coming as one big voice," he said, reported Colchester's Seatrade Maritime News.

"This is one key challenge to the Japanese shipping community - they must work together to make each fragmented voice into one concerted voice in order to have an influential impact on [those] who are asking for rescheduling."

Webinar moderator and Japan Maritime Daily president Hirofumi Yamamoto said the country's shipyards would soon have no LNG carrier orders on their books while yards in Korea and China have 100 LNG orders to date.

Said Mr Hayashi: "The Japanese must awaken themselves to the reality that the Koreans have Korean government backing, the Chinese have One Belt, One Road. The Japanese must start to wake up - you need to have a caffeine dose, a double expresso."

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