Three crew members of the Soryu Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine suffered minor injuries, and photos by the Japanese Coast Guard showed that he suffered damage to his fairwater aircraft, the wing-like structures in his command tower.
The Soryu, commissioned in 2009, is the first in its class of Japanese diesel electric submarines. It moves around 3,000 tons and has a crew of around 65 people.
The Defense Ministry said the submarine’s communications equipment was also damaged, although it could still operate.
“Soryu scraped the ship’s hull as it returned to the surface. It is extremely unfortunate that the MSDF submarine crashed into a commercial ship,” said Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi.
The accident occurred on the main island of Shikoku in southern Japan, the Ministry of Defense said.
The commercial ship reported no damage, Coast Guard officials added. Japanese media reported that the ship may have been Ocean Artemis, a bulk carrier with a Hong Kong flag.
Bradley Martin, an analyst at RAND Corp and a former US Navy captain who analyzed the images of the damage, said the impact would have restricted the submarine’s capabilities.
“I wouldn’t call the damage ‘minor’. The submarine cannot dive and cannot communicate, “said Martin in an email to CNN.