News Tourist boat with 26 passengers missing in Hokkaido

The boat "KAZU I" reported to the coast guard it was taking on water around 1:15 p.m., and then told its operator that it was tilting 30 degrees around 3 p.m. before losing contact, the JCG said. Twenty-two adult passengers and two children were aboard the boat along with two crew members, according to the JCG. The coast guard, which dispatched a helicopter and patrol boats to the site near the peninsula, said it had not found the boat nor the people on board as of 9 p.m., adding that their fate remains unknown.

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The captain of the Kazu 1 tour boat was advised to stay ashore on April 23 because of rough weather. But the boat left Utoro Port in Shari, Hokkaido, at 10 a.m. that day, carrying 26 passengers and crew. The Kazu 1 is believed to have sunk hours later, leaving at least 11 people dead and 15 missing. As the search continues for victims of the disaster off the Shiretoko Peninsula, questions are being raised about whether the captain or the tour boat operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Boat, had taken appropriate safety measures.

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Shiretoko Yuransen and three other local boat tour companies had formed a Shiretoko-area tourist boat group that shared information on weather and sea conditions. The firms have assisted each other in emergencies and have taken similar safety measures, including canceling tours if conditions were deemed too dangerous. Among the group, Shiretoko Yuransen was the only one of the four that began tours before the Golden Week holidays, which normally signal the start of the season. When Kazu I cast off from Utoro port in Shari around 10 a.m. on Saturday, conditions in the Sea of Okhotsk were already deteriorating and many fishing boats chose to remain in port. Warnings of gale-force winds and high waves were issued around that time. Toyoda, 54, was told by acquaintances to either call off the tour or be extra careful. Toyoda acknowledged the concerns but the boat tour went ahead.

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In Tokyo, transport minister Tetsuo Saito responded to the president's remarks at the press conference, saying, "It's impossible to have such a condition (for operating a boat)." "I believe (Katsurada) lacked a sense of ownership and responsibility," Saito said, criticizing the president's inadequate response to the families of the passengers. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has set up a special team to investigate the company's tour operations, including whether there were deficiencies. The coast guard is investigating the incident with the possibility of building a case against the operator on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and endangering traffic.

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Among safety measures that Shiretoko Pleasure Boat was found to have flouted are a general rule to cancel any departure from port if there is any prospect of waves reaching heights of at least 1 meter. Officials also cited the obligation of the company president, as supervisor of operations, to be in the office when a boat is out at sea and a requirement that the ship captain maintain regular contact with the office. The company's radio antenna was broken at the time and the Kazu I was not equipped with a satellite phone because it had also malfunctioned. The skipper embarked on the trip relying on a mobile phone to stay in contact with the shore but was out of range most of the time during what was supposed to have been an outing lasting no more than three hours.

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The bodies, discovered between May and June, were handed over to the Japan Coast Guard by Russian authorities the previous day following DNA tests conducted in Russia. The tests based on data sent from Japan showed the bodies were those of two of the passengers and a crew member of the sightseeing boat Kazu I, which sank in bad weather on April 23 leaving 15 dead and 11 missing. The Hokkaido police will release the bodies to the victims' families after conducting further DNA tests, officials said.

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The Japan Transport Safety Board has been studying the boat, salvaged off the Shiretoko Peninsula, to determine the cause of the accident. The board believes that seawater breached the hatch on the deck and seeped through holes in the walls below deck, the sources said on Dec. 8. The entire bottom area was flooded, including the engine room, the sources said. The board is expected to release the investigation results soon. According to the sources, the hatch lid was supposed to have been sealed with braces on the corners. But the study of the boat revealed problems with the braces that had left the hatch loose. The bulkhead, which partitioned off the cargo hold of the boat, also separated the engine room and the steering gear room. The sources said that holes in walls located in the front and back of the engine room were covered, but they apparently lacked the strength to keep the area sealed off from possible leaks.

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Waves near Cape Shiretoko were estimated at more than 1 meter high, but they reached in excess of 2 meters high near Kashuni Falls, according to the report. The report noted the Kazu I was built only for voyages in gentler seas. "Moving ahead would become extremely difficult for this vessel in waves of more than 1 meter," said a board official who was involved in the investigation. "If the crew had been able to think more calmly, they would have known the waves would get higher and higher if they tried to return to the original port. "The crew should have gone to a harbor of refuge near Cape Shiretoko to take shelter." The report said an attachment that fastens the cover to the hatch was worn out. As a result, the hatch was "presumably not tightly closed."

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The report disclosed records of a mobile phone conversation between a passenger and a relative between 1:21 p.m. and 1:26 p.m. It was the last communication from the boat that investigators could confirm. "The boat is taking on water, and it is now up to my feet," the passenger said in the call. "It's impossible to swim in this water; it's way too cold. I can't jump into (the sea), either."

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Among the families of the missing, a 52-year-old man from Obihiro, Hokkaido, was able to join the suit after having his 7-year-old son, who was among the passengers listed as missing, officially declared dead. Separately, the parents of Akira Soyama, a 27-year-old crew member who died in the incident, filed a damages suit in February last year against the company seeking a total of around 119 million yen at the Tokyo District Court. The firm has requested the case be dismissed. Soyama's parents also filed a damages suit against the Japanese government and the Japan Craft Inspection Organization claiming the vessel's safety was not properly assessed.

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Prosecutors stated that he was aware of the forecast for worsening weather, while the defense argued that he believed the boat would turn back if conditions became too dangerous. The court dismissed Katsurada's claim that he had an understanding with the boat's captain to return to port early as "unreasonable and not credible." Mizukoshi found that even the weather reports Katsurada consulted should have made it clear that operating the vessel was outside of safety standards. The judge concluded that while the fatal influx of seawater through a damaged hatch cover was an extreme event, Katsurada, as operations manager, could and should have foreseen the risk of death and injury by allowing the voyage in such hazardous conditions.

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