Photo/Illutration Flowers are placed at a makeshift morgue at a gymnasium in Shari, Hokkaido, for those killed in a tour boat disaster off the coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula. (Takuya Tanabe)

Would an airline company ever think along these lines?

“If we cancel our flight because of adverse weather conditions, passengers will complain. So why not welcome them aboard, let them experience severe turbulence, and wait until they start begging us to turn back? That would be the best way to make them understand.”

The plain answer to the above question is: never.

And yet, that was the apparent thinking of the president of a pleasure boat company responsible for a harrowing accident that occurred off the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido earlier this month.

At a news conference on April 27, President Seiichi Katsurada of Shiretoko Pleasure Boat explained that because passengers insisted on going ahead with the cruise they’d been eagerly looking forward to, he decided to let them experience the heavy seas for themselves.

“I made this decision, trusting they would better appreciate the situation once they began wanting to turn back,” he said.

Does this indicate that his company had also put passengers at risk in the past?

Severe weather was forecast for the afternoon of the fateful day, and it appears the company had been advised to forgo the boat tour.

As it turned out, the communication system--the lifeline for any vessel at sea--was out of function due to damage to the wireless antenna at the company’s office. Moreover, the satellite phone was under repairs at the time.

Katsurada noted that the trip was approved on the condition that the vessel return if the seas turned rough.

Still, the result was nothing short of a case of gross abandonment of responsibility.

Did Katsurada never consider a situation that might render it impossible for the ship to turn back?

All this bungling has resulted in an unspeakable tragedy.

Among the dead were a 28-year-old man who was to get married soon and a 3-year-old girl traveling with her parents.

Nearly half the passengers are still missing.

The holiday-studded Golden Week kicks off on April 29, and I imagine many tourist destinations will be returning to their pre-pandemic bustle.

Are all machinery and equipment in proper working order? I hope their operators have not become lax in their safety awareness.

There is no such thing as excessive safety checks.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 29

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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