Japan’s second-largest paper and paper-related products manufacturer (behind the Mitsubishi Paper Co.), Nippon Paper was founded in 1949 by a merger of several other smaller paper and pulp industries. The company is part of the Mitsui and Fuyo Keiretsus.

Nippon Paper owns several dozen plants scattered throught Japan, five of wich have dedicated railway connections in service (nine more plants also had their railway connections, but these were later abandoned in the 1960s and the 1970s, being replaced by trucks).

One of the plants to retain a railway connection is one of Nippon Paper’s largest ones: the one in Iwakuni (Yamaguchi prefecture), where small diesel locomotives owned directly by the company shuttle freight trains from the plant to the San’yo Main Line at Iwakuni Station. 

Diesel Locomotives