Pre-WWII Dutch Indies W Kobe, Japan Cancel

Happy Easter everyone!!

Hoping to find some answers as to how/why this piece was used in Kobe, Japan. It is a comb cancel typically used in Kobe port, I believe... And from what I've learned about Japanese cancels, whenever English is used on the cancel the year shown represents the western calendar rather than the Japanese calendar. So the date here would be November 22, 1933.

This would have been long before the occupation, but I did read that Japan was heavily involved with trade in the Dutch Indies during this time, and that the port of Kobe was a hotspot for international trade during this time... Maybe it's related?

Probably used aboard a ship. No way to tell a whole lot about this since the envelope is missing


Peter

I agree with the direction Peter takes, that it is often difficult to tease meaningful postal history out of a small clipping. However, it has a strong resemblance to these two paquebot covers (currently on ebay) and which is a good suspect when finding stamp used in another country. :

That's absolutely what it is! Thank you both.
Is there any good reading material about paquebot mail systems?
I'd like to know:
1)are the postmarks always congruent with the native port of the vessel? Or where a particular vessel is located in the moment?
2) are stamps from different countries available for sale on the vessels, or do passengers usually have to bring their own stamps on board?

The paquebot UPU regulation was introduced in 1894 and replaced other markings.
Check for paquebot literature here:
https://pbbooks.com/

The paquebot regulation refered to ships without a ship post office (so NO selling of stamps aboard, passengers pocket stock) but offered collection of mails.
Either with a moveable postal pillar (placed on a quay before sailing) or by entrusting the mail from the passenger directly to the paymaster.

Acceptable stamps were those of the country of departure, the country of the vessel and the first foreign port of landing, where the mails were entrusted to the port post office.
In this case, DEI or Japan stamps would have been OK