In 1885, a merger with Kyodo Unyu Kaisha (founded 1882) led to the adoption of the company's present name.

[6] The merged company had a fleet of 58 steamships and expanded its operations rapidly, first to other Asian ports and then worldwide, with a line service to Seattle established in 1896[7] and to London in 1899.

[6] The company's Katori Maru was used by Chinese Muslims to travel to Singapore on their way to Makkah for the Hajj in 1925.

The company promised to take responsibility for all the necessary formalities and helped contact other local transportation agencies that could take the pilgrims to Makkah.

[8] The majority of Japanese merchant ships, tankers, and liners sailed under the NYK banner in this period.

Regular services linked Kobe and Yokohama with South America, Batavia, Melbourne, and Cape Town, with frequent crossings to San Francisco and Seattle.

[citation needed] These went to Southeast Asia, the China coasts, and towards India and the Indian Ocean, to Europe or Batavia (Dutch Indies), or Australia and New Zealand.

[citation needed] Local sea routes connected 78 home seaports (38 open to foreign trade).

[citation needed] The sugarcane of the South Seas Mandate and Formosa, cotton, salt, and minerals represented other important parts of these transport transactions.

[citation needed] In 1926, Toyo Kisen Line (TKK), with its fleet of nine ships, merged with NYK.

[citation needed] The company also ran services connecting metropolitan Japan to its exterior provinces (Chosen, Karafuto, Kwantung, Formosa and South Mandate) of the Empire.

[10] In World War II, the NYK Line provided military transport and hospital ships for the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy.

[12] NYK's surviving vessels and equipment were confiscated by the Allied authorities as reparations, or taken by recently liberated Asian states in 1945-46.

NYK became a partner in Nippon Cargo Airlines in 1978, and in 1985, added United States container train service in cooperation with Southern Pacific.

[66][67] At the end of March 2008, the NYK Group was operating about 776 major ocean vessels, as well as fleets of planes, trains, and trucks.

The company has offices in 240 places in 27 countries, warehouses on nearly every continent, and harbor operations in Asia, North America, and Europe.

NYK head office is based in Tokyo, and has regional headquarters in London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and São Paulo.

During the first decade of 2000s, NYK reached a remarkable position within the Liner ranking, as one of top twelve companies in the number of containers carried, number one RORO Carrier, and one of the main player in LNG and break bulk transport fields, plus several prominent awards for its cruise service quality.

In April 2014, eight container sister ships of a new series were commissioned, and two more units were inserted as options in the construction contract.

The building began in spring 2015 at the shipyard Japan Marine United in Kure, Hiroshima.

The first delivered ship of the ten units to be built within end of 2018, was mv NYK Blue Jay launched in 2016.

Over 123 vessels are deployed worldwide transporting cars[73] manufactured in Japan, US, EU towards Asia, Middle East, North & South America,[74] Australia, Africa and Europe.