A court found two boatmen and a tour company safety manager guilty Monday over a 2011 accident on the Tenryu River in Hamamatsu, saying they should have foreseen the capsizing that claimed five lives on the Shizuoka Prefecture waterway.
Ruling on the incident that led to stricter safety conditions for boat operators nationwide, the Shizuoka District Court sentenced Masahiro Koyama, 67, a boatman who was in charge of instructing other boatmen at Tenryu Hamanako Railroad Co., to 2½ years in prison, suspended for four years, for professional negligence resulting in death.
Presiding Judge Masanobu Sato said Koyama "failed to train others despite knowing the dangers of the vessel turning around at the site."