Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB)
The Japan Transport Safety Board investigates aviation, rail and marine accidents for Japan, including casualties abroad to ships managed or chartered in Japan.
The Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) is Japan’s independent accident investigation body for aviation, railway and marine casualties. In marine cases it acts as the flag State investigator for Japanese ships and, under the IMO Casualty Investigation Code, as a substantially interested State where a foreign-flagged ship is managed or chartered from Japan.
Its report MA2023-10 of 28 September 2023 on the MV Wakashio grounding off Mauritius is an example of the second role: the ship was Panama-flagged, and Panama and Mauritius agreed to the JTSB’s investigation in August and September 2020. The JTSB may also issue opinions to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism under Article 28 of its founding Act, as it did with its Wakashio interim report on 30 June 2022.
The full article will cover the Board’s legal basis, its marine investigation practice and report series, its relationship with flag State and coastal State inquiries under the marine casualty investigation framework, and its principal marine reports.