Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism ordered Tokai Kisen Co. on Friday, 2 October, to take three passenger ships out of service for 20 days after an extraordinary inspection found 13 legal violations, including alcohol on duty. Jiji Press, carried by The Japan Times and Nippon.com the same day, said this is the first ship-suspension order issued under the Marine Transportation Law. The Kanto District Transport Bureau named the large passenger ship Tachibana Maru and the jet ships Seven Island Yui and Seven Island Tomo. The stop runs from 9 to 28 October on the Tokyo–Hachijojima, Tokyo–Oshima–Kozushima and Atami–Oshima routes that tie the Izu Islands to the mainland.
The order is not a new statute. The ministry created the ship-use suspension tool in 2024, after the April 2022 sinking of the tourist boat KAZU I off Hokkaido’s Shiretoko Peninsula, so that a flag and coastal-state regulator could take a named hull out of service faster than a full business-stop or licence cancellation. Friday is the first time that tool has been used. Transport minister Tatsunori Ibayashi told a news conference that Tokai Kisen must “squarely face its responsibility and work to prevent a recurrence, with a determination to renew its corporate culture.” That sentence is the operator product: a documented safety-culture failure, not a one-watch alcohol ticket.
Nikkei and Kyodo reported that the minister announced the decision on Friday morning and that the Kanto bureau would deliver the order the same afternoon. Yomiuri, writing earlier on Friday while the ministry was still locking the period, had already identified the same 9–28 October window and the same three-hull cut. The working object for managers is the delivered order, not the morning leak. Do not recast Friday as a company press release, a Tokyo MoU detention, or a rewrite of any Hormuz or Red Sea file.
Thirteen findings, then a named-hull stop
Between January and June the ministry ran an extraordinary inspection and recorded 13 Marine Transportation Law violations. In August it had already imposed administrative penalties, including an order to dismiss the officials in charge of safety and ship-operation management — the Japanese safety-management and operations-manager posts that sit on a passenger SMS. Friday’s suspension is the next step, not the first. The August dismissals did not close the file.
The inspection record that the ministry put on the record is operational. On New Year’s Day, crew on two large passenger ships, including the captains, drank alcohol on board and went on duty without taking an alcohol test. Jiji said drinking on New Year’s Day had become a company custom believed to have started at least 30 years ago. Yomiuri named the two large hulls as Salvia Maru, 6,099 gross tons, and Tachibana Maru, 5,681 gross tons, and reported that the “new year party” took place while the ships were in service. The paper said president Junichi Yamazaki and other executives knew the custom. That is a documented management-knowledge finding, not a rumour about a single rating.
The other published failures sit on the same alcohol and watchkeeping line. In April a jet-ship crew member falsified an alcohol-test result. The ministry judged the company’s internal inspection system ineffective. Yomiuri and local reporting also recorded alcohol on watch revealed in July and operation with a gangway not closed. Those are SMS and ISM-adjacent control failures on a scheduled passenger service: a test that can be substituted, a gangway that can be left open, and a holiday custom that the DPA and the master are supposed to have already killed.
Yomiuri reported that the ministry had also considered the heavier business-stop order that would have taken every Tokai Kisen ship off the berth. It chose the named-hull suspension after weighing the effect on island residents and a September improvement plan that the company filed, covering organisation and control. The remaining service during the 20 days is one large passenger ship and one jet ship. That is a capacity cut, not a full shutdown. The company told Yomiuri it would publish its response once the formal disposition was decided. Friday’s Kanto order is that disposition.
The Izu routes are a life-line, not a tourism footnote
Tokai Kisen is the scheduled sea link between Tokyo and the Izu Islands. Yomiuri put last year’s ridership at about 600,000. Large passenger ships on those routes carry up to about 1,000 to 1,300 people and also move food, medicines and other island stores in containers. The three affected services are the everyday Tokyo–Hachijojima large-ship run, the Tokyo–Oshima–Kozushima mixed large-ship and jet run, and the Atami–Oshima jet run. Island mayors had already petitioned the ministry in early September: they asked for strict guidance of the company and also said the route is “extremely important living infrastructure.” Hachijo town mayor Tomoya Yamashita said a severe measure was necessary and that a break in daily goods and food would hit hard.
The company is revising the remaining two-ship schedule and looking at substitute sailings with other operators. Yomiuri said some sailings may still lose capacity. That is the commercial and public-service implication of a first-use suspension: the regulator can now take named hulls out of a lifeline trade without waiting for a casualty, and the operator still has to show how cargo, patients and daily riders move on the hulls that remain. A passenger SMS that treated New Year’s drinking as custom has now become a 20-day fleet reduction with a minister on the record.
Keep Friday off the PSC and STCW-certificate desks. The US Coast Guard’s 1 October proposal to drop six extra STCW courses is a separate manning file. Tokai Kisen is a Japanese passenger-company enforcement action under a 2024 Marine Transportation Law tool that had never been used. Documentation, the DPA, the remaining masters and the island agents should own the 9–28 October window together. Charterers and tour operators who have sold Izu capacity across those dates need the revised sailing list, not a press-conference quote.
What Operators Should Note
- Treat 2 October as the first use of the 2024 ship-suspension tool, not as a new law. The Marine Transportation Law power was added after the 2022 KAZU I sinking off Shiretoko. Friday is the first named-hull stop. Period 9–28 October. Hulls: Tachibana Maru, Seven Island Yui, Seven Island Tomo. Routes: Tokyo–Hachijojima, Tokyo–Oshima–Kozushima, Atami–Oshima.
- Read the August dismissals and the 13 inspection findings as one file. Extraordinary inspection January–June. Thirteen Marine Transportation Law violations. August order to dismiss the safety-management and operations-manager officials. Friday’s stop is the next administrative step, not a first notice.
- Put alcohol testing on the holiday and night-watch matrix, not only on joining. New Year’s Day drinking on Salvia Maru and Tachibana Maru, including captains, then watch without a test. A jet-ship alcohol-test substitution in April. An internal inspection system the ministry called ineffective. A custom the ministry says had run for about 30 years, with executives aware.
- Do not assume a passenger SMS will be left on a warning letter. Yomiuri said the ministry considered a full business-stop and chose a three-ship suspension after the September improvement plan and island-supply impact. The next operator that presents the same pattern should expect the named-hull tool to be used again, not treated as a Tokai Kisen one-off.
- Rebuild the 9–28 October Izu capacity plan now. One large passenger ship and one jet ship remain. About 600,000 annual riders and containerised island stores sit on those berths. Substitute sailings may not restore full seats or cargo. Tour, hospital and stores bookings that assume Tachibana Maru or the two jet hulls need a written alternative.
- Keep the DPA, remaining masters and the island agents on the same order. The minister’s instruction is a corporate-culture renewal, not a three-week lay-up. Gangway control, alcohol-test integrity and a documented stop to holiday drinking belong in the SMS amendment the August dismissals already implied.
- Do not merge this with PSC CICs or STCW course deletions. It is a Japanese passenger-route enforcement product. CSO and DPA own it. War-risk, MPCI and Hormuz desks do not.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining the Kanto District Transport Bureau’s 2 October Tokai Kisen order against the 2024 Marine Transportation Law suspension tool and the published alcohol-and-watchkeeping findings so operators can treat a first-use named-hull stop as a live SMS enforcement event, not as a local ferry footnote.
