Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding

The Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control, established in 1993, is the Asia-Pacific regional PSC regime covering states including Japan, China, Australia, the Republic of Korea, and others. It operates on similar principles to the Paris MoU, with shared inspection data held in a common database that allows member authorities to target high-risk vessels for priority inspection and share deficiency information across the region. For operators running routes through Asian and Pacific ports, the Tokyo MoU is the day-to-day PSC framework. The region handles an enormous volume of world trade, and the MoU's expanded membership and inspection capacity make it one of the most influential oversight regimes in global shipping. Concentrated deficiency patterns in Tokyo MoU ports trigger flag state reviews and can affect a company's ability to trade in the region. The Tokyo MoU co-operates with other regional MoUs through the IMO-coordinated global PSC scheme, enabling deficiency data to follow a vessel across regimes. Concentrated inspection campaigns — themed periods focusing on, for example, fire safety or MARPOL compliance — are conducted simultaneously across the MoU, producing data that informs IMO regulatory work and industry guidance. Officers operating in the Pacific must be familiar with the specific enforcement priorities the MoU publishes in advance of each campaign.