Japan cancels exercise with US Navy after minesweeper sunk by fire and Japanese sailor missing

The minesweeper JS Ukushima, seen here in an undated photo, caught fire and eventually sank on November 11, 2024. (Japanese Ministry of Defense)

TOKYO — A joint U.S.-Japanese naval exercise has been canceled after a Japanese sailor went missing following a weekend fire aboard a minesweeper that eventually sank.

The U.S. and Japanese navies were scheduled to conduct minesweeping training between Saturday and Tuesday until the JS Ukushima caught fire on Sunday and sank the next day. The ship’s crew was training en route to the joint exercise, a spokesperson for the Maritime Self-Defense Force told Stars and Stripes by phone on Tuesday.

The exercise was canceled due to the attempt to locate Petty Officer 3rd Class Tatsunori Koga, 33, who was working in the ship’s engine room, the command said in a news release.

Another sailor working in the same room was injured; the remaining 43 crew members were safely evacuated, the spokesperson said. In Japan, it is common for some government officials to speak to the media without identifying themselves by name.

The fire started around 9:45 a.m. Sunday in waters 2.5 kilometers north of Oshima in Fukuoka Prefecture, part of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. It was extinguished around midnight on Monday, but the ship eventually sank around 8:34 a.m., the spokesman said.

According to the spokesperson, the Ukushima was built with a wooden hull.

The Maritime Self-Defense Force and Japan Coast Guard were still searching for Koga on Tuesday afternoon.

The fire is believed to have started in the engine room, where the ship’s diesel engines are located, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a news conference on Monday.

“The Japanese government will do its best to search for the missing personnel and take all possible measures to determine the cause and take preventive measures,” he said.

The Self-Defense Force has set up a committee to investigate the cause of the fire, Hayashi said.

The U.S. 7th Fleet acknowledged an email from Stars and Stripes asking whether the U.S. would assist in the search or continue the exercise. The command had not responded by the end of the business day on Tuesday.