Phone booth set up in Hokkaido offers a place to speak to lost loved ones

A telephone booth known as the “Ocean Phone,” where bereaved families can go and speak to loved ones who died in the 2022 sinking of the tourist boat Kazu I off the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido, has been installed along the coast of Rausu, a town on the peninsula’s eastern side.

On Sunday, a 54-year-old man from Obihiro, Hokkaido, who helped install the booth, picked up the receiver and thought of his eldest son, who was 7 at the time, and his former wife, then 42, both of whom remain missing following the disaster in April 2022.

The idea was proposed by Kenji Sakurai, a 63-year-old local fisherman who took part in volunteer searches for those missing after the accident, which left 20 passengers and crew members dead and six others unaccounted for.

After consulting with the man and others, Sakurai decided to set up the booth, with construction beginning in April.

The roughly 2-meter-tall wooden booth contains an old-fashioned black telephone that is not connected to a phone line, as well as a chair and table. It provides a place for people to talk to family members, friends and others who died in the disaster.

The booth has a blue roof and white exterior, while the door and interior are decorated in colors inspired by the sky.

A phone booth is installed in Rausu, Hokkaido, to offer a place for people who lost their loved ones in a 2022 tour boat accident to grieve. | JIJI

Because the man’s son loved bullet trains, wooden railway tracks have also been laid beside the booth, extending toward the sea.

The man welcomed the installation, saying, “A place has finally been created where I can quietly remember them by the same Shiretoko sea.”

Sakurai said, “There was no prospect of a memorial monument being built at the site, so I felt something was needed to honor the victims.”

“I worked hard, imagining that the victims’ families would come here and make calls.”