Criminal Complaint Filed against Capsized Boat's Deceased Captain

Tokyo, May 22 (Jiji Press)--Japan's transport ministry filed a criminal complaint Friday against a deceased man for allegedly operating an unregistered boat that capsized off Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, in March.

The complaint was filed with the Japan Coast Guard and submitted to the coast guard's Nakagusuku Coast Guard Office in the prefecture through the Cabinet Office's Okinawa General Bureau.

In the accident, two small boats capsized off the Henoko district in the Okinawa city of Nago on the morning of March 16, leading to the deaths of the man, Hajime Kanai, 71, who was captain of one of the boats, and a 17-year-old female student from Doshisha International Senior High School in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, who was on the other boat.

Kanai allegedly violated the marine transportation law.

It has been found that Kanai had transported students six times at the request of the school since 2023, receiving compensation each time. The ministry therefore determined that the boats' operations should have been registered as a business.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]