The operator of a boat that capsized off Henoko in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, in March, killing two high school students on a study trip, plans to stop carrying ordinary members of the public, the group said on Wednesday. It told the family of one of the students of the decision in October.
The students were aboard during a study trip. The boat went over in waters off the Henoko coastal area, the site of the relocation of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
The families of the dead have pressed the groups involved over who answers for the trip. In a statement released at a news conference held by Doshisha University officials, the parents of the girl who died in the capsize said they felt "an indescribable sense of unease" and that "the cause is the silence until now."
Doshisha chairman Hatta said at a separate news conference in Kyoto that he would "fulfill my responsibility to explain before resigning." The university's president has not stepped down.
The operator's decision would end rides for the general public, though the group did not say whether other kinds of passengers would still be carried.