A Filipino and 12 other Chinese and Vietnamese crew were still reported missing after their cargo ship collided with a fishing boat off northeastern Japan prefecture of Aomori late Sunday (PH Time).
The Japan Coast Guard confirmed this in a report by Kyodo News.
Tomoyuki Hanzawa, a spokesman for the coast guard, said that the 1,989-ton Belize-flagged cargo ship Guoxing 1 was carrying some 3,000 tons of iron scrap and rapidly took in water after the incident.
It happened some 12 kilometers off the coast of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture.
However, the cause of the collision is still unknown.
There was one Vietnamese crew member who was rescued by a nearby ship. The other 15 Japanese members of the fishing boat were also safe.
