6 dead, 5 in serious condition due to water accidents across Japan

Tuesday 20th July, 06:39 AM JST

TOKYO —

Six people died, five others were in serious condition and one went missing Monday following water accidents across Japan, as many people took to the outdoors as temperatures soared to 35 C or higher in many parts of the archipelago, according to authorities.

In Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, 6-year-old Jo Takahashi died after being swept away at the mouth of a river which he was visiting with his family, while Tomonori Kawano, a 33-year-old company employee, drowned at Tokyo’s Kasai Rinkai Park in a waterfront area along the Tokyo Bay.

Tomoki Kimura, a 17-year-old high school student, died after being hit by a small boat while he was swimming in the sea near a fishing port in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

In Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, Hiroki Yokota, 20, drowned at Lake Inawashiro. He was visiting the area with his colleagues for a barbecue.

Two men—Kazunori Saiin, 72, and Norio Arai, 69—died while fishing for ayu at respective rivers in Shiroishi, Miyagi Prefecture and Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture.

The five who were unconscious are two elementary school boys who nearly drowned in rivers in Osaka and Tokyo prefectures, two junior high school students who were swimming at beaches in Aomori and Niigata prefectures, and a 4-year-old boy who fell into an irrigation ditch in Fukuoka Prefecture.

A man believed to be in his 60s is missing after someone reported that a man was drowning at a beach in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Meanwhile, Kenichi Kawamura, an 18-year-old college student from Hiroshima who was one of two men swept downstream in a river from a campsite straddling Yamaguchi and Hiroshima prefectures Sunday, was found dead Monday in the river.

Police continue to search for Keisuke Inoue, a 24-year-old also from Hiroshima, who remains missing after trying to rescue Kawamura.

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Latest 15 of 26 Total Comments Show All

Badge213 at 08:16 AM JST - 20th July

The headline of this article followed next to the "PICTURE OF THE DAY" of kids playing in water is crazy.
my2sense at 08:19 AM JST - 20th July

Just one more shoganai issue and that will never change. I have noticed the Japanese are clueless around water overseas as well. They drown in Hawaii, Guam and Thailand often. One thing for sure is the kids are getting bolder with the horse play and Dad drinking or Mom surfing the phone doesn't help.
whiskeysour at 08:26 AM JST - 20th July

The didn't talk about the BBQ incidents. Who would add more (FIRE MAX) fuel to an already lite BBQ fire ?????? One lady was seriously burned !!!
marcels at 08:46 AM JST - 20th July

I was at a local river yesterday in saijo shikoku, and i nearly had to rescue 2 6 yr old boys, they were down the main mouth of the river fighting the current trying to reach the shore.. Luckily there were some older children closer than me to rescue them. Don,t know where their parents were but irresponsible... It seems they have no knowledge of the water or what to do if you get into trouble... Maybe they should put some water safety advert s on prime time TV like they do in Australia before the summer vacation starts then perhaps we wouldn,t be reading and commenting on these sad stories....
taiko666 at 09:32 AM JST - 20th July

Japanese saftey culture is totally rule-based and devoid of common sense. In my local swimming pool, everyone has to leave on the pool on the dot at 5 mins to the hour. A member of staff them swims slowly up and down each lane checking for submerged swimmers. The fact that it's immediately perfectly obvious to everyone present that there are no submerged swimmers is of no importance- it's in the rules. If something's not in the rules, and lies in the realm of 'common sense' , unfortunately it probably won't occur to the many Japanese. An example: it's the law that motorcyclists must wear a crash helmet, so everyone does. There's no law that says the helmet must be actually secured to your head with a strap, so many Japanese riders don't bother, rendering the helmet totally useless.
champon at 09:47 AM JST - 20th July

This doesn't surprise me in the least. I spent yesterday beside a small river in Kansai, that was packed with people - hundreds were there. It was a natural river - no concrete side, but large boulders to clamber over, pools and fairly fast flowing. I have spent my life playing in the sea and rivers, but yesterday I watched in amused despair. I had never seen so many people completely inept at any form of water safety or knowledge about how water flows. All I could conclude was that these were city people who have such a tenuous link with nature that they are total 'fish out of water' when it comes to leaving the city limits. These accidents will continue as long as the Japanese remain so disconnected from nature.
Seawolf at 10:14 AM JST - 20th July

Another reason is that pools, schools as well as public ones, are never deeper then 120 cm, so kids never learn to be in deep water. If they suddenly loose their footing in the water, they just panic instead of calmly swimming back to shore.
GJDailleult at 10:18 AM JST - 20th July

Agree with many of the comments here, and I'll add a bit more. I grew up living beside a lake and spent hundreds or maybe even thousands of hours in the water, with water safety and respect for the water drilled into our heads again and again. No currents of course, but that just makes me doubly cautious when I am in the ocean or a river. As other posters have said, that respect seems to be badly lacking in Japan, There are lots of city people with no understanding of the risks getting in the water.

The other thing is without comparable numbers for other countries, we don't know if Japan really does have a bigger problem than other countries, or if that is just the perception. But even if the perception is false, that doesn't mean there aren't Japan specific parts to the problem here. One is urbanization, and in all my time in Japan I don't recall ever seeing a water safety PSA on TV to try and get the urban types to wake up to the dangers. Two, is very simple. If you learn to swim in water where your feet can touch the ground, then you haven't learned how to swim. Thousands of "swimmers" are in the water every day, completely unaware that they don't really know how to swim.
smithinjapan at 10:31 AM JST - 20th July

In terms of the dudes fishing for ayu, and maybe the younger bucks as well, I'd say alcohol was involved. These guys always get HAMMERED while fishing or having BBQ parties on the beach, and in the parties like that that I used to go to, they would swim out as far as they could, or swim out to some distant raft, or what not.

As for the kids, seems more and more like Japan has to close access to places with no lifeguards, and put lifeguards in more and more places; I mean, in one incident a boat slammed into a kid?? Why on earth was the kid allowed to swim amongst boats, or the boats allowed to operate in the same area as people swimming? I don't care if it's a small paddle boat or not, the point is they need more regulation and supervision. I'm willing to bet that if there had been a sudden downpour somewhere and a subsequent flash flood we'd be reading about HUNDREDS of deaths -- kids playing in small streams outside massive waterducts with no parents around, etc.

It's sad, and of course some incidents are going to occur, but seriously, there needs to be more supervision in public swimming places.
chotto at 10:57 AM JST - 20th July

I wonder what some posters want... their kids attached to their parents on a ball and chain?
goddog at 11:00 AM JST - 20th July

For an island country, most cannot swim.
dracpoo2 at 11:12 AM JST - 20th July

Sad....very sad.
kaminarioyaji at 11:12 AM JST - 20th July

Taiko666 is right; nail thoroughly hit on head there I think.
Apsara at 02:28 PM JST - 20th July

seems more and more like Japan has to close access to places with no lifeguards

I hope not, that would be way too much government control. Teaching people how to actually swim and more emphasis on water safety would seem to be much more reasonable.
kirakira25 at 03:30 PM JST - 20th July

I wonder what some posters want... their kids attached to their parents on a ball and chain?

If the alternative is having to mourn my child because they drowned then I would say "yes".

But I agree, every year we read these stories. I don`t think water safety is taught well here, and I suspect as many have said in the Kasai Rinkai koen incident that alcohol may have been involved. I am often there and see loads of drunk BBQ-ers wading out to sea. Why anyone would want to stick even a toe in that revolting water is beyond me!

My daughter was given a water safety lesson the other day - they put their clothes on, and then climbed down steps into waist-deep water and walked around. I know it is better than nothing - but only just!