Hikawa Maru is a cargo-passenger liner that was built in 1930 for the Japan-Seattle line by NYK Line. Hikawa Maru was a state-of-the-art ship at the time it was built. During World War II, Hikawa Maru was set up as a navy hospital ship. The ship struck mines on three separate occasions before the war ended but avoided being sunk. After the war, it was refitted as a cargo-passenger ship and resumed service on the Seattle Line in 1953. Having been in service for 30 years, Hikawa Maru made 254 voyages across the Pacific Ocean and carried more than 25,000 passengers in total during its lifetime. Since 1961, the ship has been kept at Yamashita Park. Hikawa Maru was reopened to the public in 2008 as NYK Hikawa Maru. Being the only surviving cargo-passenger liner built in Japan before World War II and having earned a high reputation as a valuable industrial heritage that preserves shipbuilding technology and inboard interior decoration, the ship was designated as a Nationally Important Cultural Property in 2016.