A tourist boat that was salvaged after it sank in waters off Hokkaido was lifted on Wednesday from the barge that carried it to port and transported for further investigation into the accident that killed 14 and left another 12 missing.
After being craned off the barge at Abashiri Port, the 19-ton Kazu I was loaded on a large truck and taken to a facility several hundred meters away.
Later in the day, families of those killed or lost in the accident off Japan's northernmost main island were given the chance to see the vessel and place flowers for their loved ones.
The boat, which sank in bad weather during a sightseeing cruise off the Shiretoko Peninsula on April 23, the first day of the touring season, was positioned on the deck of the barge on Friday after being brought to the surface by Nippon Salvage Co.
The Japan Coast Guard will now examine the boat's underside in hopes of making progress in determining the cause of the accident.
The coast guard, Maritime Self-Defense Force, Hokkaido prefectural police, local fishermen and other tourist boat operators conducted a sweep for three days through Tuesday but the search ended without finding any trace of the 12 missing people, including two crew of the vessel.
The coast guard will continue the search alone, it said.
The boat with 26 people aboard went missing after departing on a planned three-hour cruise around the peninsula, a World Natural Heritage site, despite bad weather forecasts and warnings.
The transport ministry said on May 24 it intends to revoke in June the boat operator's license, after confirming violations of 17 safety regulations. It would be the most severe administrative penalty ever imposed under the maritime transportation law.
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