Two men died Monday from apparent oxygen deficiency after being found unconscious in a gravel-transport ship beside a quay in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s shipyard in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, police said.
Police identified the victims as Koichi Yamauchi, a 47-year-old Mitsubishi Heavy employee, and Kenji Osaki, 44, president of Osaki Gumi, a Kobe-based subcontractor.
The two men were discovered by a colleague at around 11:40 a.m. near one of the vessel's ballast tanks. They were rushed to a hospital but died shortly after 1 p.m., police said.
The ship came into the shipyard, located in Kobe's Hyogo Ward, on Sunday for repairs, they said.