Nan’yō Kōhatsu

The Nan’yō Kōhatsu K.K. (南洋興発株式会社, Nan'yō Kōhatsu Kabushiki Kaisha, abbreviated to Nankō or NKKK), also known the “South Seas Development Company”, was a Japanese strategic development company which aimed to promote economic development and Japanese political interests in Micronesia and Southeast Asia.

Founded in 1921 by Haruji Matsue to exploit the new mandated territory of Micronesia, Nanko received substantial support from the colonial administration and capital from the Oriental Development Company (東洋拓殖株式會社, Tōyō Takushoku K.K.). The company was promoted as the "Mantetsu of the South" in hopes that it would be as successful and as profitable as the South Manchuria Railway Company.

Matsue was a fervent supporter of the Nanshin-ron doctrine, which advocated Japanese territorial expansion and colonization of the islands of Oceania and eventually the European-held territories of the Indonesian archipelago. Building on the resources of the defunct Nan'yō Shokusan, Matsue was able to build a substantial empire supported by the sugar industry during the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to sponsoring the immigration of over 5000 workers from Okinawa and northern Japan to the Mariana Islands, and clearing over 3000 hectares for plantations, the company also built a sugar refinery, alcohol distillation plant, ice place and a railroad. Sugar cane became the primary industry of Saipan and by the mid-1930s the company exported over twelve million yen of sugar to mainland Japan.

In from the late 1920s and early 1930s, Nan'yō Kōhatsu developed a wide range of activities in British, Dutch and Australian territories in southeast Asia, especially in Sulawesi and in New Guinea. The company bought out local Japanese copra plantations and fish processing plants, and established a shipping company. The company also established a cotton plantation in Manokwari on the northern coast of Netherlands New Guinea, which also included an air field. By the late 1930s, the company employed over 50,000 people.

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