Recreational scuba divers in Japan are subject to a long-standing, and contentious, industry policy -- signing a waiver to accept all responsibility for whatever happens when they take the plunge.
Although the waiver is a given, diving businesses and divers are at odds over the validity of the disclaimers and what they represent.
"The problem is that the waiver lays all the responsibility on the diver" even though the industry is profiting by providing instruction, said Makoto Nakada, who began studying diving safety issues in 1993 following a serious accident in a dive off Hawaii.