Surviving families sue operators over boat accident on Hokkaido

The relatives of the victims of an accident involving the Kazu I excursion boat off Hokkaido in 2022 sued the boat’s operator and its president for damages on Wednesday.

In the lawsuit filed in the Sapporo District Court, the plaintiffs, including 29 family members of 14 passengers on the sunken boat, are seeking damages of about 1,499 million yen ($9.2 million) from Shiretoko Yuransen, the boat’s captain based in the city of Shari on Hokkaido, and its president, 61-year-old Seiichi Katsurada.

On the afternoon of April 23, 2022, the boat sank off the coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido. 20 passengers and crew members on board were killed and six others are missing.

In its final report published in September 2023, the Japan Transport Safety Board concluded that the direct cause of the sinking was flooding through a defective hatch on the bow deck. The report pointed out that the boat’s hull and its communications equipment were not adequately maintained and that the operator did not have a safety management system.

Last year, the parents of a then 27-year-old crew member who died in the accident filed a lawsuit for damages in the Tokyo District Court against the government and the government-appointed Japan Craft Inspection Organization, which had inspected the boat Kazu I before the accident, as well as against Katsurada and his company.

The headquarters of the 1st Regional Coast Guard, based in the city of Otaru on Hokkaido, is investigating Katsurada with the prospect of bringing charges against him on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death.