A total of 13 people were killed after a fishing vessel from the Chinese mainland collided with a tanker from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Thursday morning, according to China’s Consulate-General in Osaka.
The accident occurred early Thursday in international waters, some 400 km north of the Oki Islands in western Japan, where four of the 16 crew members on board the fishing vessel were rescued.
Among the four rescued, one person died later and the bodies of the 12 missing fishermen were retrieved on Friday.
Earlier, three Japan Coast Guard vessels, with frogmen on board, were sent to the site to search for the missing fishermen, and the Chinese consulate general is keeping in close contact with Japanese officials.
An investigation into the incident is underway.