On August 28, the Kanto District Transport Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism issued Tokai Kisen with orders under the Maritime Transportation Act to dismiss its safety management officer and vessel operations manager, as well as an order concerning the assurance of transportation safety. It also issued a corrective order under the Mariners Act.
Following on-site inspections of Tokai Kisen and its vessels since January, the Kanto District Transport Bureau confirmed that personnel had stood navigational watch while under the influence of alcohol and that alcohol-testing and pre-departure inspection records had been falsified. It found that the company’s safety management regulations had not been observed.
The individuals ordered to be dismissed are Shinya Kawasaki, Executive Officer and Head of the Operations Division, who served as safety management officer, and Masaaki Kubota, the vessel operations manager. The deadline for their dismissal is September 28.
Among the facts underlying the orders was an incident on January 1 in which crew members, including the captains of both the Sarubia Maru and Tachibana Maru, drank alcohol collectively aboard the vessels while carrying passengers. Shortly after drinking, they began navigational watch without undergoing alcohol checks. Calculations using the Widmark formula found that several crew members, including captains, had begun watch with an alcohol concentration in their breath far exceeding 0.15 milligrams per liter.
On April 25, an alcohol test was taken by a substitute person aboard the Seven Island Yui. On large passenger-cargo vessels, it had become routine not to conduct alcohol tests for crew assigned to arrival and departure duties. It had also become routine, particularly among crew members who self-reported having no drinking habit, to record a zero result despite no test having been conducted.
In addition, on large passenger-cargo vessels, it had become routine to complete pre-departure inspections while boarding equipment (gangways) remained in place and to depart without closing the shell doors. A circle was entered in the “boarding equipment” field of the pre-departure inspection log. It was also confirmed that Tokai Kisen had not reported to the transport bureau two incidents in which the Sarubia Maru operated with its shell doors open: on November 7, 2025, between Tokyo and Oshima, and on December 24, 2025, between Shikinejima and Kozushima.
It was further noted that the company president had been aware of the practice of drinking alcohol on New Year’s Day aboard large vessels but had not taken appropriate action.
Violation points totaled 92 for the Tokyo–Hachijojima route, 96 for the Tokyo–Oshima–Kozushima route, and 38 for the Atami–Oshima route. Tokai Kisen is required to submit its improvement measures in writing by September 28.
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This article was generated using automatic translation by GPT-4 API. The translation may not be accurate.
