The family of a 17-year-old high school student who died when two boats capsized off Henoko in Okinawa Prefecture on March 16 met the group that operated the boats on a visit to the prefecture, then cut the meeting short after about an hour, feeling that almost no verification of the accident had been carried out.
The family of Tomoka Takeishi, a second-year student at Doshisha International High School in Kyoto Prefecture, posted the account on the note platform on October 26. Takeishi and the boat's captain, a man, died in the accident, which involved two vessels carrying 18 students from the school and three crew members.
The family publishes through a note account called "Henoko Boat Capsizing Accident Bereaved Family Memo." The posts, titled "October Okinawa Visit (Part 1)" and "(Part 2)," describe a trip from October 17 to 19 during which the family met the Henoko Base Opposition Council, the group that ran the boats.
A visit timed to a birthday month
October was the month Takeishi would have turned 18, and her father said the family decided that if they were going to visit, this was the time. On October 17 they visited the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters and were briefed on the investigation, and they also met Governor Genji Koya.
The family wrote that they could sense the Coast Guard was pursuing the investigation with real commitment. They asked Koya to tighten safety management for school and educational trips, and to build a system under which the permits, insurance and safety arrangements of groups that offer hands-on activities can be checked.
The meeting with the operating group produced answers of "I don't know" in succession, according to the posts. The family left without getting an account of how the accident was being reviewed.