HOKKAIDO - Newly recovered video from a passenger's digital camera has revealed conditions aboard the Kazu I sightseeing boat before it sank off Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula in April 2022, a disaster that left 20 passengers and crew members dead and six passengers still missing more than four years later.
It was learned on September 11 that 10 photographs and 10 videos had been newly recovered from the camera belonging to a 34-year-old male passenger from Chiba Prefecture who remains among the missing.
The man's parents, through their attorney, released one of the videos showing the vessel's interior shaking and rough seas before the accident. His father described the recovery as "a miracle born from our son's determination."
The approximately three-minute video was recorded at 11:53 a.m. on April 23, 2022, about two hours after the Kazu I left Utoro Fishing Port and roughly an hour and a half before it sank.
The footage shows a gray sea covered with whitecaps and an air purifier inside the vessel swaying heavily as the boat moves. Audio resembling the sound of a child crying was also recorded.
The images provide a new glimpse into one of Japan's worst maritime disasters in recent years, an accident that subsequently exposed serious failures in the tour operator's safety management as well as shortcomings in government supervision and vessel inspections.
The Kazu I was operated by Shiretoko Yuransen and carried 24 passengers, Captain Noriyuki Toyoda and one deckhand. Among the passengers were two children.
The vessel departed Utoro Fishing Port at around 10 a.m. on April 23 for a three-hour sightseeing cruise along the western coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula, a World Natural Heritage site known for its steep cliffs, waterfalls and wildlife.
Its planned route took it north toward Cape Shiretoko before returning to Utoro.
Weather and sea conditions, however, were expected to deteriorate as a cold front passed through the area. The Japan Transport Safety Board later concluded that the vessel left port despite the prospect that conditions could reach the company's own criteria for suspending operations. People familiar with local conditions had also warned about the worsening weather.
The Kazu I reached the vicinity of Cape Shiretoko and turned around at about 11:47 a.m. The newly recovered video was filmed only minutes later.
On its outward journey, the vessel had traveled at around 17 knots, but increasingly high waves slowed it substantially on the return trip. The Japan Transport Safety Board found that waves more than one meter high were striking the bow as conditions deteriorated.
Investigators concluded that a hatch cover on the foredeck had not been securely closed when the vessel departed Utoro.
As the vessel pitched and rolled in the worsening sea, the hatch opened and seawater began entering the bow compartment.
The flooding then spread through openings in internal bulkheads into a storage area, the engine room and the steering gear compartment. Unlike properly watertight sections that could have contained the flooding, the compartments below the upper deck were connected by openings that allowed seawater to spread through the vessel.
Eventually, seawater reached electronic components associated with the main engine, causing the engine to stop.
At around 1:07 p.m., the captain contacted the operating company. At around 1:13 p.m., the vessel reported that it was taking on water, that its engine had stopped and that its bow was sinking, and requested rescue.
The Japan Coast Guard was contacted at around 1:18 p.m. The vessel's position was reported as near Kashuni Falls on the western side of the peninsula.
By around 1:21 p.m., the bow was flooding and the vessel was beginning to sink. The Japan Transport Safety Board concluded that the Kazu I sank within a short period after 1:26 p.m.
There were no survivors.
Search operations involving the Japan Coast Guard, Self-Defense Forces, police and local fishing vessels continued over an extensive area. Bodies were subsequently recovered from waters around Shiretoko and farther north, including areas near Russian-controlled islands as currents carried victims away from the accident site.
Twenty of the 26 people aboard have since been confirmed dead. Six passengers remain missing.
The extremely cold water made survival particularly difficult. The Japan Transport Safety Board estimated the seawater temperature at about 4 degrees Celsius and concluded that, with the lifesaving equipment available on the Kazu I, the likelihood of rescuing passengers alive after they entered the water was extremely low unless assistance arrived almost immediately.
The accident also raised questions over why the vessel had been allowed to leave port in deteriorating weather.
Investigators found that the company had used a practice under which a vessel could depart on the assumption that the captain would monitor conditions and turn back if necessary. That approach differed from the operating standards under which a voyage was supposed to be canceled when weather and sea conditions were expected to reach specified limits.
The investigation found that the captain lacked some of the knowledge and experience required for safe operations in the area and that the company effectively lacked a functioning operational management system.
Communication arrangements also proved inadequate.
Shortly before the accident, the vessel's approved communications equipment had been changed from a satellite phone to an au mobile phone. Investigators found that the mobile network had almost no reception between Cape Shiretoko and the area around Kashuni Falls, limiting the captain's ability to obtain advice or support from shore when the emergency developed.
The condition of the vessel itself was another major factor.
Investigators determined that components used to secure the foredeck hatch had deteriorated or loosened and had not been adequately inspected or maintained.
The Japan Craft Inspection Organization had inspected the vessel shortly before the disaster but judged the hatch to be in good condition based on a visual inspection and did not conduct an opening and closing test that could have revealed that it could not be properly secured.
The Kazu I also had a history of trouble before the fatal voyage. In June 2021, it ran aground near Cape Puyuni on the western side of the Shiretoko Peninsula. The Japan Transport Safety Board concluded in its investigation of that accident that the captain had attempted to shorten the route without fully understanding the location of shallow water.
The 2022 sinking prompted scrutiny not only of Shiretoko Yuransen but also of the government bodies responsible for regulating the company.
The Hokkaido District Transport Bureau had previously conducted a special audit after an earlier accident involving the operator but later concluded that the company's safety awareness had improved. The final investigation into the sinking found shortcomings in that oversight and concluded that regulatory and inspection safeguards had failed to function effectively.
The transport ministry revoked Shiretoko Yuransen's business license in June 2022 after identifying numerous safety violations.
The disaster led Japan to tighten regulation of small passenger vessel operators. Measures included stronger inspections and audits, a system requiring passenger vessel operators to periodically renew their business permits and tougher penalties for violations of safety orders. Requirements for lifesaving equipment on passenger vessels operating in cold waters were also strengthened.
The Japan Transport Safety Board issued its final report in September 2023, concluding that worsening weather caused the vessel to pitch and roll, opening the improperly secured bow hatch and allowing seawater to enter.
The board said the immediate physical failure was accompanied by broader problems, including inadequate maintenance, a lack of watertight integrity between compartments, poor operational decisions, insufficient communication equipment and the absence of an effective safety management system at the company.
Criminal proceedings eventually focused on Seiichi Katsurada, president of Shiretoko Yuransen.
Katsurada was arrested in September 2024 and later charged with professional negligence resulting in death. Prosecutors argued that he should have foreseen the danger from the deteriorating weather and ordered the voyage canceled.
At the opening of his trial in November 2025, Katsurada pleaded not guilty. He said the captain had told him the vessel would turn back before the weather worsened and maintained that he believed it was safe to allow the boat to depart.
On June 17, 2026, the Kushiro District Court sentenced Katsurada to five years in prison.
The court concluded that the accident was foreseeable and found that Katsurada had failed to suspend operations even though strong wind and high-wave advisories had been issued. The defense filed an appeal the same day.
More than four years after the sinking, the six missing passengers have still not been found.
The newly restored photographs and videos have therefore taken on particular significance for their families, preserving previously unseen moments from the passengers' final journey and providing further evidence of conditions aboard the Kazu I before the disaster.
For the parents of the 34-year-old passenger whose camera preserved the latest footage, the recovery has also provided another connection to a son who never returned from Shiretoko.
His father said the images were "a miracle born from our son's determination."
Source: Kyodo
