A wharf at Yokohama port went into operation Monday when two vessels pulled up to piers designed to handle ships larger than any other port in the country, municipal officials said.
Minami Honmoku Wharf in Naka Ward opened after two of the planned four piers were completed, the officials said.
Each pier is 350 meters long and permits access to berths 16 meters deep, they said.
One of the two vessels is the 91,560-ton Chastine Maersk, a Danish-registered containership that is one of the largest freighters in the world, they said.
The wharf is equipped with five cranes that are the world's largest, each around 130 meters high and with a reach of 63 meters.
Each crane is capable of coping with next-generation ships that will be able to accommodate up to 12,000 containers.
A 35-hectare terminal -- the largest in Japan -- also opened the same day.
The Yokohama Municipal Government began constructing the wharf in 1990 to improve the competitiveness of the port, which originally had piers in berths 14 meters deep, the officials said.