5 Years Sought for Boat Operator Head over Fatal Sinking

Kushiro, Hokkaido, April 16 (Jiji Press)--Japanese public prosecutors on Thursday sought a five-year prison sentence for Seiichi Katsurada, president of the operator of a tour boat that sank off Hokkaido in 2022 to leave more than 20 people aboard dead.

In the day's hearing for the trial at Kushiro District Court in the northernmost Japan prefecture, the prosecution called the sinking "an unprecedented maritime accident that took the lives of 26 people, including passengers." Hearings are set to conclude on Friday, when the defense side is scheduled to make final statements.

The court battle is centered on to what extent the 62-year-old head of Shiretoko Yuransen, charged with professional negligence resulting in death, understood the planned course of the Kazu I tour boat and whether the accident was predictable.

Prosecutors said that the company had displayed a notice near the entrance of its office when there was a possibility of the tour boat turning back midway through service, but that no such notice was shown on the day of the accident.

The defendant was aware that the tour boat would sail on a course off the Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido, where the accident took place, as a display on a signboard in front of the office said that the vessel would sail on the course as planned, prosecutors argued.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]