Japan Defense Chief Quits Over Fatal Boat Collision

The head of Japan’s Defense Agency resigned today to take responsibility for a submarine collision that killed 30 people aboard a sportfishing boat last month.

Tsutomu Kawara, fighting back tears, urged his successor to take steps to restore public confidence in the Self-Defense Forces after a series of accidents.

“Many innocent lives were lost in an extremely regrettable accident . . . in which the defense force was one of the parties involved,” Kawara told reporters after handing in his resignation to Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.

Kawara, 51, who served as director-general for 10 months, said his successor, Kichiro Tazawa, should “take over the responsibility of ensuring that such an accident never occurs again.”

Tazawa, installed as agency head today, said in a televised news conference that pursuing a safer armed forces would be his major goal.

The fishing boat, the 154-ton No. 1 Fujimaru, was rammed in the side by the massive Nadashio naval submarine on July 23. Japanese were outraged when television reports and witnesses’ accounts revealed crew members standing on the submarine and watching people drown.

“While defense has grown . . . increasingly important for our country, there have been a large number of incidents involving the Defense Agency,” Kawara said.

The submarine crash brings the number of military accidents this year to 11 and the death toll to 32. Critics say public confidence in the military is waning in a country where the armed forces have rarely been popular.

Kawara becomes the first Defense Agency director-general in 17 years to relinquish his post in a controversy involving the armed forces.