The operator of the Kazu I sightseeing tour boat, which sank off Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula last year, had no safety management system, a government report said Thursday.
The company, Shiretoko Yuransen, lacked personnel for operating the boat safely, and the boat and its communications devices were not maintained sufficiently, the Japan Transport Safety Board said in its final report on the April 2022 accident, which left 26 people dead or missing.
The transport ministry's board maintained their earlier view that water entering through a faulty hatch on the bow deck was the direct cause of the sinking.