Japanese Coast Guard officers prepare to search for capsized boats, at a port in Henoko, Nago city, Okinawa prefecture, March 16, 2026. Kyodo News via AP

Two boats carrying 21 people capsized Monday off Henoko, a controversial relocation site for a U.S. military base off Japan's southern island of Okinawa, throwing all into the water and leaving two of them dead, officials said.

The Japan Coast Guard said 18 of them were students from a Kyoto high school on two boats, 10 on Heiwa Maru and eight on the smaller Fukutsu, to observe the Henoko area as part of their peace education program.

Coast guard rescuers pulled all 21 people out of the water, but a 17-year-old female student and the captain of Fukutsu were later pronounced dead, officials said. Two people were injured but their conditions were not life threatening.

The teenager was wearing a life jacket at the time of her death, a coast guard official told Agence France-Presse. A high-wave advisory was in place for Okinawa at the time of the accident, which occurred around 10 a.m., the official said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to Coast guard officials.

The boats were about half a mile east of Henoko when they capsized. Despite the wave advisory, the water was not very rough and there was no sign the boats collided, officials said.

Persistent protests and lawsuits between Okinawa and Tokyo have held up the relocation plan of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from a crowded neighborhood on the island for nearly 30 years.

Many local residents have opposed the U.S. military presence for years, following a spate of crimes and accidents involving American soldiers and base personnel.

Last July, police said two U.S. Marines in Okinawa were under investigation for alleged rapes.

Henoko is a popular destination for activists opposing the relocation, but the students were not protesting, officials said.

Okinawa is home to about half of the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan under the bilateral security pact. Many Okinawans complain about risks of accident, noise, pollution and crime associated with U.S. bases.

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