Two Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers collided Friday morning in the Pacific off Kochi Prefecture during an antipiracy exercise, the MSDF said.
None of the roughly 390 crew members of the 4,650-ton Onami and the 3,550-ton Sawagiri was injured in the 8:45 a.m. collision. But the Onami sustained broken railings at the rear deck and the Sawagiri about a 60-cm hole at its bow.
The two destroyers can still navigate and will return to their home ports for investigations into the damage and how the accident occurred.
The Onami, which is based in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the Sawagiri, from Sasebo base in Nagasaki Prefecture, left Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Thursday to take part in the exercise some 130 km off Cape Ashizuri in Kochi Prefecture.