Investigators raid Japan boat company’s office after sinking
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) — Coast guard officials have searched the office of a Japanese tour boat operator as part of a criminal investigation into suspicions that professional negligence caused the sinking of a vessel carrying 26 people in a national park last month. The Kazu 1 sightseeing boat conducted the tour on the northeastern side of Hokkaido on April 23 despite forecast rough seas and warnings from other tour operators. It made a distress call that afternoon saying it was sinking. The coast guard plans to use a remote-controlled submersible camera to look inside the sunken boat in hopes of locating bodies possibly trapped inside. The operation was delayed Monday due to bad weather.