The Ocean Policy Research Foundation was established as the "Japan Foundation for Shipbuilding Advancement" in 1975. At the outset, its aim was to promote the shipbuilding industry and related manufacturing industries through activities such as conducting management diagnosis, financing business operations, supporting technology development and taking measures to prevent marine oil pollution. Subsequently, in response to a number of problems related to the ocean, which is the lifeblood of shipbuilding, the foundation's activities expanded to include research into and study of ocean affairs overall.
In 1990 the name of the foundation was changed to the "Ship & Ocean Foundation." It organized within itself the "Institute for Ocean Policy, SOF" in 2002. This transition shows the process by which the foundation came also to function as a Think Tank on ocean matters. And now, in accommodating its situation as a dual system encompassing a foundation and an institute, and proceeding at full speed with studies on the whole range of maritime affairs, the foundation is operating under the name of "Ocean Policy Research Foundation."