Although European shipbuilding tonnage is less than that of Japan and South Korea, European shipbuilders are making the most sales surpassing Japan and South Korea by mainly targeting leading-edge ship construction. Even more surprising, 10% of the sales are being allotted as fund for R&D.Recently, we see some sort of move towards raising the safety level at the IMO and research projects about safety.It really is becoming a great threat for the Japanese shipbuilding industry where the fund for R&D has gotten smaller.