Coast Guard Searches Okinawa Boat Operator after Fatal Accident

Nago, Okinawa Pref., March 20 (Jiji Press)–Japan Coast Guard investigators Friday began searching locations linked to the operator of boats involved in a fatal capsizing accident that happened off the Henoko district in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan. The operator is a civic group opposing the construction of a new military base in Henoko. Members of the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters searched its office in Nago and its base in Henoko that accommodates people protesting the construction of the facility replacing the U.S. military’s Futenma air station in Okinawa’s Ginowan. “We’ll fully cooperate with the investigations,” Zenko Nakamura, co-head of the group, told reporters. The accident occurred Monday off Henoko, where construction work for the replacement facility was underway. Two boats operated by the group capsized, leaving two people, including a 17-year-old high school girl, dead and 14 others injured. At that time, three crew members and 18 students of Doshisha International Senior High School in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, were aboard the boats. The students boarded the ships as part of a peace study program. After the searches, the coast guard headquarters will analyze the seized materials and investigate the circumstances surrounding the departure of the ships and the civic group’s safety management system. According to the group, ship captains were left to decide whether to depart, while the group had no clear standards on wind speed, wave height or other factors for the captains to decide whether to operate boats. Captains checked weather information and sea conditions in the morning to decide whether to sail, with wind speeds of 7 to 8 meters per second considered a rough threshold. At the time of the accident, the wind speed was 4 meters per second near the site, and a high wave advisory was in place. The headquarters said that the area is near a reef and that high waves are therefore likely to happen. According to the coast guard headquarters, the cause of death for the two people, also including the captain of one of the ships, was drowning. All of the students and crew members were wearing life jackets, but the girl’s life jacket was caught on a capsized vessel when she was found. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]