New icebreaker begins voyage to Antarctica

Families bade farewell Tuesday as crew members embarked from Tokyo aboard the new icebreaker Shirase on an Antarctic expedition.

Southbound: A crew member of the Shirase, Japan's fourth icebreaker, bids farewell to his family Monday morning at Harumi pier in Tokyo before setting off on an Antarctic expedition. KYODO PHOTO

The 12,500-ton Shirase, the country's fourth icebreaker, departed from Harumi Pier in Chuo Ward. The ship is expected to reach the Showa Base in Antarctica in mid-December.

Maritime Self-Defense Force sailors were also on board.

Most of the observation team members, however, will fly to Australia later this month and board the icebreaker when it reaches the western port of Fremantle.

The fourth-generation icebreaker carries the same name as the third one. The old Shirase is now anchored at the MSDF base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The government will sell the retired Shirase to Weathernews Inc.

"The old Shirase is a Japanese treasure. We hope to revive it as a place from which to distribute information on the Earth's environment and climate change," a Weathernews official said of the firm's plan to moor it at a port in Chiba Prefecture and open it to the public.