The Defense Ministry has released an interim fact-finding report on the Feb. 19 collision between an Aegis destroyer of the Maritime Self-Defense Force and a fishing boat that left two fishermen missing. The 7,750-ton Aegis destroyer Atago collided with the 7.3-ton tuna trawler Seitoku Maru around 4:07 a.m. that day about 40 km south-southwest of Cape Nojima, the southern tip of Chiba Prefecture.

The March 21 report says that while the Atago had a duty to take evasive action, the possibility exists that its effort was insufficient. The ministry and the MSDF should ponder every possible factor that led to the accident, including whether the crew members followed the basics for safe navigation and accident avoidance and whether organizational discipline is maintained within the MSDF. Then they should take necessary actions to rectify the situation.

According to the report, a crew member on watch saw three white lights (either on masts or at the stern) to the right in a frontal direction from around 3:30 a.m. to around 3:40 a.m. and notified the duty officer by telephone. Another watchman saw three or four red lights (which are on ships' port side) at 3:48 a.m. also to the right in a frontal direction but did not notify the duty officer, because he thought the ships were drifting or moving slowly at a distance of about 10 km.