Watch standers aboard the Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Atago may have spotted the small fishing boat it ran over before dawn Tuesday 12 minutes before the collision instead of two, as earlier reported, Defense Ministry papers showed Wednesday.
The detailed information about the 4:07 a.m. collision off Nojimazaki Cape on Chiba Prefecture's Boso Peninsula adds further fuel to the possibility that the crash was caused by negligence on the part of the Aegis destroyer's crew.
The documents appear to contradict earlier accounts made by the ministry that the Atago crew noticed a green light possibly from the 12-meter, 7-ton trawler Seitokumaru two minutes before the warship cut the small boat in two. Its father and son crew remain missing.