KUSHIRO, Japan – The defense counsel for the president of a tourist boat operator pleaded not guilty to professional negligence Wednesday over the 2022 sinking of a vessel off Hokkaido in northern Japan that left all 26 aboard dead or missing.
Seiichi Katsurada “could not have foreseen” the sinking, his lawyer told the Kushiro District Court at the first hearing of the trial, noting he had collected necessary information on the day of the accident and was unaware of a defect in the vessel’s hatch, identified as having led to the sinking.
Katsurada, 62, president of the boat operator Shiretoko Yuransen, said at the hearing, “I do not know whether a crime has been committed, so I will obey the decision” of the court.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors said in their opening statement that Katsurada breached his “duty of care” as he “could have foreseen that the vessel was in danger of sinking given that strong wind and wave advisories had been issued.”
The 19-ton Kazu I sank on April 23, 2022, during a cruise around the Shiretoko Peninsula, a World Natural Heritage site on Japan’s northern main island.
In September 2023, the Japan Transport Safety Board said the sinking occurred as deteriorating weather conditions led the vessel to rock repeatedly, allowing seawater to flood the engine room and other areas after entering through the hatch near the bow.
The board report also said that the boat operator’s safety management was compromised as Katsurada, who had no knowledge or experience of vessels, assumed the roles of both chief safety officer and operations manager in 2021.
Katsurada was arrested by the Japan Coast Guard in September 2024 and indicted the following month by Kushiro prosecutors for allegedly causing the deaths of all 24 passengers and two crew members aboard, including six people still listed as missing.
According to the indictment, Katsurada allegedly failed to fulfill his responsibility as a safety manager by postponing or canceling the cruise despite a forecast of bad weather.
A total of 19 people will be summoned by the prosecution before the trial concludes on April 16, according to the court and other sources. The ruling will be handed down on June 17.
A separate civil suit against Katsurada and the company is ongoing at the Sapporo District Court, in which the families of the passengers are seeking damages totaling over 1.5 billion yen ($9.7 million).
AloJapan.com