50-year-old fisherman aboard a small boat was rescued in the Pacific on Sunday, about a month after he went missing following engine trouble, the Japan Coast Guard said.
A Maritime Self-Defense Force plane rescued Mitsushige Takechi around 4:50 p.m. in waters about 800 km off Chiba Prefecture to the east, coast guard officials said.
Takechi, a resident of Sakito, Nagasaki Prefecture, was conscious but in very poor physical condition, the officials said.
A fishing boat traveling through the area discovered the 3.3-ton Hanei Maru around 10:30 a.m. and reported it to the coast guard.
Takechi went fishing in the one-man boat on July 24. But he went missing on the night of the same day after radioing a local fishing vessel repairman to say the boat had suffered engine trouble.
Mitsuyoshi Miyahara, head of the fishing cooperative to which Takechi belongs, said he was relieved that Takechi was found alive but surprised he was discovered so far from Sakito.