The coast guard searched Monday the office of the operator of a tour boat that sank off Hokkaido with 26 people aboard over a week ago as well as the house of its president, suspecting the tragedy was caused by gross professional negligence.
The 1st Regional Coast Guard Headquarters will look into the documents it collected from Shiretoko Yuransen in Shari, Hokkaido, and the company's president, Seiichi Katsurada, in an attempt to speed up the process of understanding the incident to build a case against the operator.
The boat left port in the town on April 23 despite a bad weather warning, issued in the area 20 minutes before its departure, which said to expect waves over 3 meters. By setting off, the boat's captain apparently violated company rules.
Under the rules, tours must be canceled when the wind speed is expected to exceed 28.8 kilometers per hour, and waves are likely to reach a height of 1 meter, according to sources with knowledge of the company's business.
The sources alleged Katsurada had repeatedly forced captains to depart despite high seas.
Meanwhile, the sunken boat's skipper, Noriyuki Toyoda, had previously reported cell phones were the primary form of communication used when out of port. He received approval for that from a transportation ministry-authorized organization prior to the accident, according to the sources.
Approval was granted despite phones not being able to connect to cellular networks in areas where the boat regularly traveled.
About 20 reporters gathered in front of the company office in Shari on Monday morning. The curtains were drawn at the office, blocking the view from outside.
"It's a matter of course that the company was raided, considering the gravity of the accident," an employee at another tourist boat operator said. "I hope the president cooperates sincerely in the pursuit of the truth."
Another worker at a different operator hoped the investigation reveals the cause of the accident while saying, "The search for the missing people should take priority."
The 19-ton Kazu I went missing with 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew aboard after it left the port to cruise along the Shiretoko Peninsula, designated as a World Natural Heritage site.
The boat was found on the seabed on Friday and fourteen deaths have been confirmed so far.
Eight patrol boats and other vessels continued the search for the remaining 12 people on Monday. But the search by a camera-equipped underwater drone was called off for the day because of bad weather.
The Japan Coast Guard said Monday it has hired Nippon Salvage Co., a Tokyo-based company specializing in saturation diving, for 877 million yen ($6.8 million) to begin a search of the vessel's interior within May.
The diving technique allows divers to work at great depths for lengthy periods by reducing the need for decompression at the end of every dive. Divers use a pressurized chamber during the course of the assignment to acclimatize.
The coast guard and other authorities are trying to search the inside of the sunken boat with the drone, but they have not been successful due to rapid currents and poor visibility.
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