Search efforts continued April 30 in the frigid waters off eastern Hokkaido for missing passengers and crew of a pleasure boat that sank the previous weekend while underwater cameras were deployed to scan the vessel lying on the seabed.
The sunken sightseeing boat Kazu I was found off the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido on April 29 after three more bodies were recovered and another one was spotted by a Russian patrol vessel, sources said.
More visible demonstrations of Moscow's military power on and around Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido are generating concerns among residents.