[1][2] With the shift to passive anti-submarine warfare, the collection of marine environmental data is required for efficient execution of maritime operations, and seafloor topography / sediment, tidal currents / geomagnetism, and water temperature / salt content, etc.

[3] After that, in the 1950s, Futami-class oceanographic research ship and JS Suma were installed, and ocean observations were carried out with a system of four vessels.

The standard fin stabilizer on an escort ship is ineffective without a certain amount of footsteps, but the ocean observation ship has many opportunities to berth and observe due to the nature of its mission, so it can be effective even at low speeds.

[3] In addition, this ART system is said to be a type called Stabilo Ace that automatically predicts and diminishes upset.

In addition, the crew of female SDF personnel is taken into consideration, and as a residential area for women, there is an officer's bedroom (for 2 people) near the officer's room on the 2nd deck and a staff's living area (for 8 people) in the central part of the 1st deck.

The vibration damping material is installed on the outer panel of the hull at the bottom of the ship.

In order to suppress the shaft inclination as much as possible, the height of the propulsion motor itself was kept low and placed on the side as much as possible.

Ocean surveying equipment includes a sea beam 2112 type multi-narrow beam sounder installed on the bottom of the bridge, a mud sampler, and a proton magnetometer (magnetic resonance magnetometer).

Nichinan was laid down on 7 August 1997 and launched on 1 June 1998 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shimonoseki Shipyard.

Around 2:00 pm on November 30, 2013, the cable of an unmanned underwater vehicle (ROV) was broken in the Tsugaru Straits, and it went missing.

At around 2:45 am on July 20, 2016, a 27-year-old male chief sailor disappeared while sailing about 30 km east of Amami Oshima in Kagoshima Prefecture.