Japanese Coastguard News

At least nine people were killed when a South Korean-flagged vessel capsized off Japan, South Korea's foreign ministry said on Thursday.Two South Korean nationals were among the dead, it said, adding that the Japanese coastguard had rescued an Indonesian crew member and that another member of the crew of 11 was missing.The ministry did not provide the name of the vessel.Public broadcaster NHK, citing the coastguard, reported on Wednesday that a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker had capsized off the coast of Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan…

A crewman from a cattle ship that capsized enroute from New Zealand to China has died after being pulled unconscious from water by the Japanese coastguard on Friday, while it emerged the vessel had a history of mechanical issues.The unidentified man was only the second crewman to be found. The search is still on for the remaining 41 crew members after the ship carrying 6,000 cattle capsized in the East China Sea on Wednesday.Rescuers also found a life jacket and cattle carcasses in the area where the Gulf Livestock 1 is believed to have sunk after it sent a distress call amid strong winds and heavy seas whipped up by Typhoon Maysak.Gulf Livestock 1…

A ship carrying 43 crew and nearly 6,000 cattle from New Zealand to China capsized after losing an engine in stormy weather in the East China Sea, the only crew member rescued so far told Japan's coastguard on Thursday.The Gulf Livestock 1 sent a distress call from the west of Amami Oshima island in southwestern Japan on Wednesday as Typhoon Maysak lashed the area with strong winds and heavy seas.Japan's coastguard said it had rescued one crew member, Sareno Edvarodo, a 45-year-old chief officer from the Philippines, on Wednesday night (Tokyo time) while searching for the ship.According to Edvarodo, the ship lost an engine before it was hit by a wave and capsized, a coastguard spokeswoman said.When the ship capsized, crew were instructed to put on lifejackets.

Japan expanded its search for a missing F-35 stealth fighter on  with a maritime survey vessel joining a navy ship and a U.S. Navy salvage team is expected in the area in coming days, a Japanese air force spokesman said.Only small pieces of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force aircraft's tail have been found since the advanced jet disappeared from radar screens during an exercise with three other F-35s over the Pacific, near northwest Japan, on April 9."The plane and the pilot are still missing," the air force spokesman said.

Nearly an hour elapsed before a Philippine-flagged container ship reported a collision with a U.S. warship, the Japanese coastguard said on Monday, as investigations began into the accident in which seven U.S. sailors were killed. The U.S. Navy confirmed that all seven missing sailors on the USS Fitzgerald were found dead in flooded berthing compartments after the destroyer's collision with the container ship off Japan early on Saturday. The Fitzgerald and a Philippine-flagged container ship collided south of Tokyo Bay early on Saturday. The cause of the collision is not known. Multiple U.S.

A North Korean cargo vessel carrying rice sank off the west coast of Japan's westernmost major island of Kyushu on Thursday after springing a leak, but all 26 crew members were rescued without sustaining injuries, Japan's coastguard said. It has not been decided how to send the crew, all of them North Koreans, to their home country, a coastguard official said, adding that they were in good condition. Japan's ties with North Korea have long been strained due to the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents decades ago and Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programmes. The Japanese coastguard is treating the incident as a straightforward shipwreck case and there were no signs of abnormalities, the official said.

Japan said on Tuesday it has told China that any foreign naval vessel that enters Japanese waters for reasons other than "innocent passage" will be told to leave by a Japanese naval patrol, signalling a potential escalation in a long-running dispute. Japan had informed China of its decision in November, after Chinese navy ships sailed near disputed isles in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. Japan's government, Suga said, had approved the course of action last May. "If a foreign naval vessel transits our waters for (purposes) other than 'innocent passage', we will order a sea patrol and take the step of having the Self-Defense Force unit order withdrawal," Suga told a news conference.

From harassing Filipino fishing boats and monitoring oil exploration off Vietnam to playing cat-and-mouse with the Japanese coastguard, China's expanding fleet of civilian patrol vessels have become the enforcers in disputed Asian waters. The ships of the recently unified Chinese coastguard are a fixture around the disputed islands and shoals of the South and East China Seas. While the ships don't have the weaponry of military vessels, thus reducing the risk a confrontation could get out of control, they still represent a potent show of sovereignty. The coastguard is funded by China's State Oceanic Administration, a civilian body, although one U.S. naval officer and security experts said it coordinates its operations with the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

From harassing Filipino fishing boats and monitoring oil exploration off Vietnam to playing cat-and-mouse with the Japanese coastguard, China's expanding fleet of civilian patrol vessels have become the enforcers in disputed Asian waters. The ships of the recently unified Chinese coastguard are a fixture around the disputed islands and shoals of the South and East China Seas. While the ships don't have the weaponry of military vessels, thus reducing the risk a confrontation could get out of control, they still represent a potent show of sovereignty.

Charlie Martell used the phone to contact Falmouth Coastguard in the UK to summon help after his boat capsized several times when it was hit by winds of up to 50 knots and waves of more than 50ft (15.25m). The double Guinness World Record holder was attempting to set three new world records and raise money for charity in a 4,500 mile (7,242 km) solo crossing of the North Pacific Ocean. Falmouth Coastguard passed on details of his boat Blossom, which was damaged during tropical storm Mawar, to the Japanese Coastguard which then co-ordinated the rescue. Charlie, a Territorial Army Lieutenant and former Royal Engineer, had been at sea for 36 days when the storm damaged one of his boat's main bulkheads.

The Japanese Coastguard has contracted Transas and its representative Marix k.k as Application Service Provider (ASP) for the National Data Centre (NDC). The NDC will be operational by 31st December 2008. Transas has developed a complete range of Long Range Identification Tracking (LRIT) products and services for contracting governments and shipowners. The design of the Transas LRIT software allows a flexible and custom installation according to national requirements. This can range from a wholly outsourced service to a mixed architecture whereby Application Service Provider services are hosted by Transas yet the National Data Centre and data storage resides in the contracting government’s chosen location. Transas performs conformity testing for onboard LRIT terminals.

At least eight crew members of a Panama-registered cargo ship drowned after the vessel sank off Japan on Sunday, the Japanese coastguard said on Monday. The 3,561-ton White Koowa, with a crew of two Japanese and 12 Filipinos, was carrying 3,000 tons of nickel ore when it sank off Kochi, about 335 miles southwest of Tokyo. Five crew were rescued on Monday and one Filipino crew member remained unaccounted for after the coastguard dispatched patrol boats and aircraft to the scene on Monday. The dead included the ship's captain and chief engineer, both Japanese. It was not known immediately why the ship went down. The White Koowa, which left Indonesia on December 26, had been due to arrive at a southwestern Japanese port on Monday. - (Reuters)

Reuters has reported that six countries including Japan, China, South Korea and the United States are to hold a series of joint maritime exercises, just weeks after Tokyo and Seoul were locked in a tense stand-off over some tiny disputed islands. Japan, China, South Korea, the United States, Canada and Russia will launch naval exercises in the Japan Sea and East China Sea to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction, starting on Saturday, Japanese Coastguard officials said. The officials said it would be the first time China took part in such joint naval exercises. In October 2004, Japan hosted the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), Asia's first naval exercise, in the backyard of North Korea.