One of the stalwarts responsible for the safety of freight shipping, particularly tankers has died. Mr. Yoshio Sasamura of Japan, a veteran of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and a major contributor to its work over many decades, has died. He was 84 and had been battling with cancer. In a long and illustrious career, Mr. Sasamura dedicated more than 50 years' service to improving maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment.
A graduate of Tokyo University's Department of Engineering and Naval Architecture, Mr. Sasamura joined the IMO Secretariat in 1964 after a career of some 15 years as an engineer and a surveyor with the Japanese classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai. Six years later he was appointed Director of IMO's Marine Science and Technology Division and subsequently became Director, first of the Organization's Marine Environment Division and, latterly, its Maritime Safety Division. In 1987, he was appointed Assistant Secretary-General.
After leaving the IMO Secretariat in 1989, he was appointed technical adviser to the Japan Shipbuilding Research Association and, in this capacity, served until 2008 as a member of the Japanese delegation to IMO. He was also the Secretary of the Tokyo MOU on Port State Control from its beginning, in 1994, until 2007.
Among his many achievements, which included an influential involvement in the development of the 1966 Load Lines Convention, the 1969 Tonnage Measurement Convention and the 1974 SOLAS Convention, it will be for his work in the establishment of the 1973 MARPOL Convention and its subsequent Protocol of 1978 that he will perhaps be best remembered. |
