Tokyo - A Japanese sailor was rescued in the sea off northern Japanese after drifting for about 10 hours using a plastic bottle to stay afloat.
Tsuyoshi Kurosawa, a 28-year-old tanker crewman, was taken to hospital for hypothermia after he was picked up in the Pacific Ocean off the northern Japanese province of Iwate.
Kurosawa fell from the 2 997-ton tanker Sakura Maru without a life jacket on Tuesday morning.
But he managed to survive with an empty 2-litre plastic bottle for a floatation device until he was spotted by the crew of a fishing boat on Wednesday morning.
"Water temperatures were higher than average for this time of year at 19 degrees Celsius. He was very lucky to survive," a coast guard official said.
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