Kishida: Transport Ministry Shares Responsibility For Tour Boat Accident
Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says the transport ministry shares responsibility for the sinking of a tour boat off Hokkaido last month.
Kishida made the comments at a Lower House committee meeting on Friday.
The sightseeing boat "KAZU I" sank off the Shiretoko Peninsula on April 23, leaving 14 people dead and 12 others missing.
During the committee debate, an opposition lawmaker said the transport ministry had overlooked a lack of safety management by the boat operator last year. He said there were three instances of oversight in the ministry's inspections.
Kishida said he acknowledged that the ministry's failure to grasp the extent of the operator's safety problems meant it had not fulfilled its responsibility.
He said he had instructed ministry officials to make improvements to prevent a recurrence of such an accident.
Salvage workers lifted the boat from the seabed at a depth of 120 meters to near the surface on Monday. But the boat sank again to a depth of over 180 meters while it was being towed by a barge. It was lifted again and put on the barge on Friday morning.
Transport minister Saito Tetsuo told the committee that he received a report saying the boat had sustained no noticeable damage from the fall. He added that even if it had been damaged, it would be possible to distinguish whether the damage was from the fall or the accident itself.