Understand Vlad. Just curious since many ro/ro cargo ships, such as the one I work in, has a lot of H/H cargo and also out-of-size cargo(but not heavy) which we load in Japan, in ports were such cargo has come from remote places in Japan, and since you say they can not be transported on land...and it's rolling equipment. Well, some day we'll figure it out :-)

I have no information on its design, but this ferry is to sail on a specific route: Shin-Moji to Osaka, a one-night trip, and I guess her ramps are designed for some sort of standard Japanese trucks size - which is smaller than their European or American counterpart of the same loading capacity, due to road/tunnel size limitations.

Rgds

Vlad

Do you know the SWL of the ramp? The "trend" is going for more high and heavy kind of cargo's, also on ro-pax ferries, so this ferry, by the looks of it, has limits on size of cargo. Perhaps she is so designed inside that H/H cargo will not fit anyway? Is there only fixed decks/panels inside? Or are there liftable decks? Just curious... :-)

I think there's a good reason for this small ramp. I have checked a lot of ferry routes in Japan, searching for a decent shipspotting cruise. I ended up disappointed, for every trip was a night one... So, ferries spend lots of time in ports, and therefore are not bound by short port turnaround times. So, there's no need for a big ramp in order to speed up the loading/unloading.
And once you have a small ramp, you can greatly simplify hull construction - large openings for european type ramps are a huge compromise on hull strength, and require great deal of hull reinforcement in the area.
Just my .02$.

Rgds

Vlad

It's funny how the Japanese are still going for a very small stern ramp while the European ro/paxes have full-width ramps.

Thanks. From what I was able to see on a video clip of her launching, she will have a peculiar "flat nose"...anyway, can't wait to see her finished.

Rgds

Vlad

Nice one Vlad, this promises to be another good looking Jap ferry