Fisheries school reps, Tsukumi city officials meet Kono, Eto

Japan Policy & Politics, Feb 26, 2001

TOKYO, Feb. 21 Kyodo

The chairmen of three national associations related to high school fisheries training called on Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Wednesday, demanding that he ask the United States to ensure safety for travelers in its waters.

''We strongly demand that you ask the U.S. government to secure safety for people's lives and the passages of vessels so as to prevent a recurrence of such a grave collision,'' the chairmen said in a statement handed to Kono.

They were referring to the Feb. 9 incident in which U.S. Navy submarine Greenville collided with the Ehime Maru, a Japanese high school fisheries training ship, while making a rapid ascent and sank it in waters off Hawaii.

Later Wednesday, officials of the Oita Prefecture city of Tsukumi in southwestern Japan visited Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seishiro Eto to urge the government to try to have the nine Japanese missing since the accident ''rescued as soon as possible.''

Tsukumi Mayor Yasuya Iwasaki also asked in a written demand to Eto for Tokyo's cooperation in having the U.S. continue search-and-rescue operations, salvage the vessel at an early time and find out what caused the accident.

Nine people, including a 49-year-old Ehime Maru crew member from Tsukumi and four 17-year-old high school students, are missing and feared dead. The 499-ton Ehime Maru is lying on the seabed some 600 meters below the surface off Oahu.