Houseflags of Japanese shipping companies

From the company website

Aall & Co., Ltd. was founded as a trading company in Yokohama in 1904, and is one of the oldest foreign companies in Japan.

Today, Aall & Co., Ltd. has diversified into other areas of business. In addition to our shipping concerns, we are involved in financial services, and in the marketing and distribution of foreign products and services in Japan.

Aall Barwil Private Limited (Aall Barwil) a joint venture between Aall & Co. Ltd and Wilhelmsen Maritime Services (WMS) provides a complete range of ship agency services at ports throughout Japan.

Aall Group Inc., the holding company for the Aall companies is involved in international financial services, investment management, insurance, ship owning, real estate, and manufacturing and distribution.

Marine Services listed are: ship agency port services, ship broking, chartering, repair, survey and inspection, etc.

Aall & Co. has offices at Tokyo, Kobe, and Shikoku whereas the holding company is located at George Town, Cayman Islands.

Some highlights from the "About Us / History" section: founded in 1904 by Norwegian C.B. Aall offering trade and marine services. Shipping company Aall Shokai Kabushiki Kaisha founded in 1921. Intensive shipbroking activity. 1938, Mr Aall retires and returns to Norway. During World War II business is suspended but resumes, opening up shipbuilding contracting for major firms and becoming a top player in this field. Due to the 1980s economy slump, reorganization of business interests. From 1985 in cooperation with Barwil of Wilhelmsen finally leading to joint venture in 2006.

The flag is a blue pennant horizontally divided blue-white-blue with company name in red letters on white stripe.
Jan Mertens, 9 September 2008

Naha - white flag, red circle, red "A".
Jarig Bakker, 7 December 2005

There is a report (26 June 1999) from the Okinawa Times concerning a possible bankruptcy of "one of the two major shipping companies in Okinawa".

The company owns three ships and has three leased ships in its fleet, moving cargo between Naha and major mainland ports such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya. It also has lines to Ishigaki and Miyako, and overseas routes to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Jan Mertens, 15 July 2006

Capt. Line – the abbreviation for ‘Captain’ seems intentional – is a tourist shipping company active in the harbour of Osaka, Japan. The website is in Japanese only.

Besides touring Osaka harbour the firm seems to operate some fixed routes, one of them leading to and from Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium, and to offer party excursions and charters.

The house flag – presented as a drawing – is blue bearing yellow captain’s rank stripes (at least I accept them as such), placed diagonally, and on some boats, i.e. stripes and flag painted on the hulls, and the flag itself on top. So it is real after all, not a fancy - rank stripes on a house flag are rare, but not unheard of.
Jan Mertens, 13 November 2007