The families of two of the nine people who died in the sinking of the high school fisheries training ship Ehime Maru by a U.S. submarine in a collision off Hawaii two years ago signed a settlement with the U.S. Navy in Tokyo on Friday.
Lawyers signed settlement accords at the U.S. Embassy on behalf of the relatives of Yusuke Terata, 17, who was a student at Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime Prefecture, and Toshimichi Furuya, 47, who was chief engineer of the Ehime Maru.
The families of the seven other Japanese who perished in the Feb. 9, 2001, accident, along with the 26 survivors, reached settlements with the U.S. Navy on Nov. 14 for a reported total of $13.9 million.