Economic development in Pacific Asia has been accompanied by the strong growth of container port traffic and the setting of a major maritime trade corridor and its connectors. This corridor is structured along a North-South maritime axis that runs from a cluster of Japanese ports (Tokyo/Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka/Kobe) to Singapore, including along the way major gateways such as the port of Busan in South Korea, the Chinese ports of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River Delta, and the port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.