The president of the company that operated the tourist boat that went missing off the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan held a news conference on April 27, speaking in public for the first time since the deadly accident.

The facts revealed by Seiichi Katsurada, the president of Shiretoko Pleasure Boat, make it difficult to believe that he had been deeply and keenly aware of his responsibility for the safety of passengers.

A strong wind and high surf warning was issued for the day of the accident. As the weather was expected to become rough in the afternoon, fishermen decided not to go out to sea or suspended operations and returned their boats to port.

Before the boat was scheduled to depart, the president said, he talked with the skipper, Noriyuki Toyoda, at around 8 a.m. and agreed to allow the shallow-hulled vessel to venture out, but on the condition that it return if conditions became turbulent.

These are not the only incredible facts disclosed at the news conference.

Katsurada was informed that the radio antenna at the company office was broken on the morning the boat left port. However, he decided that it would be possible to communicate with the skipper by mobile phone or a radio operated by other pleasure boat companies located nearby.

Moreover, the boat was not equipped with a satellite phone required for communication with a ship far off the coast because that device had also malfunctioned.

The captain of the tourist boat was inexperienced at skippering at sea, but was hired for the operation because a veteran skipper told the president that Toyoda had “a flare” for the job.

“Since it was the first day of this season (for the business), there were many items on the checklist that were not crossed off yet,” the president said.

But conventional wisdom dictates that there must not be a lapse in attention to safety from the beginning.

Many of the 26 passengers and crew aboard the boat remain missing.

The president and all other people responsible for the tragedy must make sincere responses to the anger, grief and criticism of the families of the victims.

To ensure there will never be a similar accident, they should also fully cooperate with the special inspection launched by the transport ministry by providing the investigators with all the relevant facts as they truly are as well as all related documents and other materials.

Shiretoko Pleasure Boat was involved in a grounding accident in June and a minor collision in May last year.

The transport ministry’s Hokkaido Regional Transport Bureau issued an “administrative guidance” to the company, which, in response to the bureau’s request, submitted a plan to improve its safety measures.

Two days before the latest accident, local tourist boat operators including Shiretoko Pleasure Boat participated in a rescue drill conducted by the Japan Coast Guard.

The ministry’s special inspection should determine whether stronger measures should have been taken in response to the previous accidents and when the drill was conducted to ensure safe operations.

The ministry decided on April 28 to set up a panel of experts to review the regulations concerning the safety of small passenger boats and consider necessary measures.

The issues the panel will address concern how to ensure appropriate decisions on whether to operate a boat and improved skills of crew members, including the levels of experience and qualifications required to serve as a skipper.

The panel will also discuss measures to improve the effectiveness of ship inspections and tighten the requirements concerning safety equipment, such as radio and life-saving apparatus.

We need to closely monitor the panel’s work and assess whether the panel’s interim report, to be released this summer, will actually deal with important issues concerning the realities of the business and offer effective proposals to tackle them.

The Golden Week holidays have just started. All businesses in the tourist industry, including pleasure boat operators, should learn lessons from the tragedy and step up their efforts to ensure safe operations of their facilities and equipment.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 29

PHOTO CAPTION

Seiichi Katsurada, the president of Shiretoko Pleasure Boat, speaks to reporters on April 27 at his first news conference held after the sinking of a pleasure boat off the coast of Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido four days before. (Kengo Hiyoshi)