The Tokyo-based travel agency that organized last weekend's ill-fated trekking tour near the Great Wall outside Beijing relied on its Chinese partner to ensure the safety of the party and never sent staff to assess the route.
Tokyo-based Amuse-Travel Co. also arranged a 2009 mountain tour in Hokkaido in which eight tourists died in poor weather.
When asked Monday about the level of danger at the hiking site and what safety precautions had been taken, Junichi Itagaki, head of the firm's general affairs division, did little more than reiterate that the Chinese partner had those details.