Water accident
Details
Event title
Japan - 4 dead after ship collision off northeastern Japan
Source
Severity
Low
Event date (UTC)
2026-03-17 08:50:32
Last update (UTC)
2026-03-17 08:50:35
Area range
Local event
Address/Affected area(s)
Northern Pacific Ocean about 20 kilometers northeast of Misawa port, Aomori Prefecture
Four people died after a fishing vessel with 13 aboard capsized following a collision with a cargo ship off northeastern Japan, the coast guard said Tuesday.
The Hachinohe Coast Guard Office was notified at around 1:15 a.m. of the collision between the 748-ton cargo ship Suehiro Maru and the 140-ton Kofuku Maru No. 65 fishing vessel about 20 kilometers northeast of Misawa port in Aomori Prefecture.
Nine crew members were rescued shortly after the collision, while the other four, who had briefly been missing, were found by the cargo ship and other fishing vessels by around 7 a.m. and later confirmed dead.
A 73-year-old crewmember of a ship that assisted in the rescue said the search for the people who were initially missing was made difficult by the dark.
But at around 7 a.m., they were able to pull up one person who had been snagged by a net, while two others were later found in the vicinity.
The trawler, from Hachinohe, Aomori, is believed to have sunk. The cargo ship, which is from Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, was heading to Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, from Tomakomai, Hokkaido.
The weather in the area was clear at the time, with winds of around 26 km per hour and waves of 1 meter. The water temperature was around 8 C.
© KYODO