(From left) Nobuo Inoue, Edgardo Sadang and Shunji Kuroda

Thai authorities plucked the three -- skipper Nobuo Inoue, 56, chief engineer Shunji Kuroda, 50, and engineer Edgardo Sadang, 41 -- from a small boat about 20 km off the coast of the southern province of Satun.

The 323-ton tugboat Idaten, owned by a shipping company based in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, was attacked off Malaysia's Penang island, near the opening of the pirate-infested Strait of Malacca that separates Indonesia's Sumatra island and peninsular Malaysia.

The attack rekindled international security concerns over shipping in the strait, one of the world's busiest sea lanes and channel for most of Japan's oil imports.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 26, 2005
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