NAGASAKI (Kyodo) A fishing boat with 10 people aboard may have capsized Tuesday off the Goto Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The coast guard dispatched an airplane and a patrol boat to search for the 113-ton Yamada Maru No. 2, which hadn't been heard from since early in the day.
Of the 10 crew members, six are Chinese and the rest Japanese, including 49-year-old skipper Tamotsu Matahari, the coast guard said.
The boat and another vessel owned by Yamada Suisan, a fishing company in the city of Nagasaki, left Nagasaki port Monday afternoon to fish east of Jeju Island, South Korea.
The other vessel received its last radio message from the Yamada Maru No. 2 at around 3:50 a.m. and was told it had been hit by strong waves and was listing. A capsized raft apparently belonging to the missing vessel was found in the area at around 5 a.m.
Winds of 46.8 kph were recorded in the area at the time.
