A woman who went swimming in Japan was rescued after drifting 80 km (50 miles) away from the beach where she had been with her friend. The Chinese woman, in her 20s and using a rubber ring, spent 36 hours in the water before being spotted by a cargo ship off a peninsula south of Tokyo. A nearby smaller vessel was alerted, and two crew members jumped into the sea to rescue her, as reported by AFP. Coast Guard helicopters then transported her, dehydrated but conscious, to a hospital, according to Kyodo news agency.
Police were informed on Monday evening when the woman, who has not been named, was reported missing after swimming in Shizuoka Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo. “We received the information around 7:55 pm [10:55 GMT] on July 8 after the woman’s friend reported her missing at a nearby convenience store,” a local Japan Coast Guard official told AFP. He mentioned that there was “80 km in a straight line” between the beach and the location where she was rescued off Chiba Prefecture’s Boso peninsula, adding that she likely drifted even further. The woman told rescuers she couldn’t return to the beach because of the rubber ring.
