Japan Coast Guard: Aircraft Data File

The Japan Coast Guard’s first NAMC YS-11A JA8701 made its maiden flight on January 27, 1969.
Almost exactly 42 years later, on January 19, 2011, Blue Eleven was operated on the last flight of
a Japanese-registered YS-11, to Miho AB in Tottori Prefecture. The following day, she was
transferred to JASDF ownership for spares. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

This section provides ongoing information on the aircraft operated over the years by the Maritime Safety Agency (MSA), which changed its English name to Japan Coast Guard (JCG) on April 1, 2000.

Divided into fixed- and rotor-wing aircraft, the types covered are as follows:

Beech 18	Bombardier Dash 8-Q300	Cessna Turbo Skyhawk JT-A	NAMC YS-11
Beechcraft King Air 200	Cessna 185	Dassault Falcon 900/2000	SAAB 340
Beechcraft King Air 350	Cessna U206G Stationair	Gulfstream G-V Sea Watch	Short SC-7 Skyvan

 

AgustaWestland AW139	Bell 47D-1	Bell  505 Jetranger X	Sikorsky S-55
Airbus Helicopters AS332L-1 Super Puma	Bell 206B Jetranger	Kawasaki-Bell 47G-2/KH-4	Sikorsky S-58 Sikorsky S-62
Airbus Helicopters EC225LP	Bell 212 Bell 412/412EP	Kawasaki-Hughes 369HS	Sikorsky S-76

Appearing at the foot of this page is another table, giving the in-service years and numbers received of JCG aircraft types in chronological order.

Its flaps extended, one of the two Haneda-based Gulfstream Vs sedately takes part in the flypast
held during the 70th anniversary review of the fleet over Tokyo Bay in May 2018.
(Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

Fixed-Wing Types

Beech G18S comes into land at Kagoshima Airport in March 1978. (Photo: Takao Kadokami)

Beech G18S JA5505, Then & Now

Its pristine natural metal finish gleaming, the then newly arrived Beech G18S JA5505 undergoes
pre-service maintenance checks in a hangar at Chofu airport, Tokyo, on Oct. 1, 1962.
(Photo & copy: Kenji Murakoshi)

Fast forward 50 years to Dec. 2012, and JA5505 sports the colour scheme from its MSA days at
the Kumamoto City Museum, where the aircraft remains to this day.
(Photo: Chikara Matsuno)

The last of nine King Air 200s delivered to the JCG in the 1980s, JA8860 was recommissioned
2011–2014 to replace an aircraft damaged by the tsunami. Only one (JA8824) remains in
Japan, the rest having all been sold to U.S. operators. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

Beechcraft King Air 350 JA868A was among the last batch of three delivered in August 2001. JCG
bases bestow their aircraft with individual names by type and for PR purposes occasionally ask
 the public for suggestions. Having started its career at Shin-Chitose Airport in Hokkaido,
this aircraft was Fukuoka-based and bore the name Umikamome (Seagull)
when this photo was taken. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

A fine action shot of one of the pair of Beech 350s operated by the 1st Region from Chitose in
May 2018. In this case the aircraft bears the name Etopirika (Tufted Puffin) on its nose.
(Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

Beech King Air 350 JA862A during its time serving as Kanmuriwashi (Crested Serpent Eagle)
with the 11th Region from Naha. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

Kounan Airport, Okayama Prefecture, November 23, 2020. Having arrived two weeks earlier via
Narita International Airport as N83FM, the JCG’s Beech 350 laser-mapping survey aircraft
emerges from a hangar wearing its Japanese registration. All that remains is to add its
Aobazuku (Brown Hawk Owl) name on both sides of its nose. (See Bulletin Board,
March 30, 2021). (Photo: YUKIHIDE via Twitter @RJBK_spotter)

Shin-Chitose Airport-based Dash 8-Q300 JA724A Oowashi (Steller’s Sea Eagle) on patrol over
typical Hokkaido winter scenery. Converted for the search and rescue role by Field Aviation in
Toronto, the type was selected in December 2006; deliveries commenced in early 2009.
(Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

One of the then two Haneda-based Bombardier Q300s on climb out. Delivered in 2009, this the first
aircraft named Mizunagi (Shearwater) was out of action undergoing repairs for more than a
year after being caught in the March 2011 tsunami at Sendai airport. This was also the
aircraft involved in the tragic collision with a JAL A350 at Haneda on January 2, 2024. 
(Photo: 3rd Region/Japan Coast Guard)

 

The last Cessna 172S delivered has been involved in two accidents, the latest on April 18, 2023.
The crew of two luckily escaped injury when the aircraft came to rest on its back in a field in
Usa, Oita Prefecture. after a forced landing. (Photo: 1st Region/Japan Coast Guard)

Equipped with a ventral door to enable the dropping of rescue equipment, the JCG’s sole
U206G was used to monitor oil pollution on the Seto Inland Sea and for pilot training.
(Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

As reported in the April 2015 issue of Aireview, the JCG Cessna U206G Stationair and a Bell 212 (JA9550, see below) were withdrawn from use at a ceremony held at Hiroshima Air Station on January 22, 2015.

In the case of the Cessna, in addition to the speeches, the presentation of a bouquet of flowers to the aircraft’s chief pilot and the anointing of the engine cowling with rice wine, the ceremony for the first time included a series of five final taxying runs along the Hiroshima runway. Station personnel and the local Coast Guard Friends’ Society had been asked to apply for the privilege of taking one of the 15 seats available.

Setotsubame (Seto [Inland Sea] Swallow) arrives back at its Hiroshima Airport base in February
2009. The aircraft was taxied along the runway for the last time on January 22, 2015.
(Photo: Masato Motoya [Blue W!ngs])

In its 37 years of service the aircraft had been airborne for a total of 15,237 hours. Aside from its age, another deciding factor was the prohibitive cost of aviation fuel of the type needed for reciprocating engines, a fuel that is no longer manufactured in Japan.

The ceremony ended with each of the participants taking turns to paint out a Japanese character of the aircraft name on the sides of the aircraft.

(Additional information taken from the Kaiho Shimbun [Coast Guard Newspaper], the organ of the Japan Coast Guard Foundation.)

Carrying a local girl and some other invited guests, one of the two JCG Falcon 900s takes off from
Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, on June 13, 2005. A name unveiling ceremony was held that day, a
month and a day after the two aircraft had changed base from Haneda, where they had been
given the name Ootaka (Goshawk). A commemorative gift was presented to the girl who
had won a competition to think of a name for the aircraft. Incorporating a word in
the Okinawan dialect, her winning entry was Chiyurawashi (Beautiful Eagle).
(Photo: 11th Region, Japan Coast Guard)

Delivered to the JCG in Japan in September 1989, the two Falcon 900s were
replaced, after 30 years’ service, by Falcon 2000EX aircraft in 2019.
(Photo [May 2018]: 11th Region, Japan Coast Guard}

A comparison of the colour schemes sported by one of the two Falcon 900s operated by the
MSA/JCG since 1988. During their time based at Haneda, the aircraft sported the words
Maritime Safety Agency in bus company style along the lower fuselage (above).
(Photo: contri via Wikimedia Commons) 
The arrival of the G-V SeaWatch aircraft prompted a move to Naha, the 2000 name change
to Japan Coast Guard the more up-to-date design that featured the lettering in airline
style above the fuselage windows (below). (Photo [Naha, Nov. 2014]: Tom Meikle)

(Photo: Asahi Shimbun Aviation via Twitter @asahi_aviation)

Dassault Aviation announced on April 22, 2015, that the JCG had selected the Falcon 2000 Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) to enhance its fleet. Not provided at that time, the contract covered five aircraft for delivery from March 2019. Based on the long-range Falcon 2000 LXS business jet, the acquisition was said to have come after an international competition. Dassault’s partners in the project are L-3 Platform Integration and THALES.

The first two Falcon 2000s were registered to Mitsui Bussan Aerospace in May 2019, and one arrived at Chitose on May 7, 2019 (link). They were flown from Shizuoka airport for periods in the summer before their registrations were passed to the JCG, the first being JA573A on August 9. Moved to Naha in September that aircraft had been joined by JA572A by early November. The winning entry from the general public for the aircraft nickname worn on the nose (link)—Churataka (Beautiful Falcon), based on that chosen for the Falcon 900 (see above)—was officially announced at a ceremony at Naha, naturally involving JA573A, on September 11.

At the end of its ferry flight, the Falcon 2000 that was to become JA575A arrives at Nagoya’s
Centrair International Airport on a wet day in mid-December 2019.
(Photo: なごやん via Twitter @N682G)

In mid-February 2020, JA575A was seen at Shizuoka Airport when being readied reportedly for service from Fukuoka. The aircraft was bearing the name Wakataka (Young Hawk), which had again been selected from, on this occasion, 353 suggestions received from the general public. The later three of the six aircraft are all now based at Kita-Kyushu Airport.

A still from a JCG publicity YouTube video (link) shows the commemorative photo taken on
July 8, 2021, when the commissioning ceremony for Falcon 2000 Wakataka 2
was held at Kita-Kyushu Airport. 

The first of the G-V Sea Watch aircraft delivered to the Japan Coast Guard in 2002, JA500A speeds
in for a landing on Runway 22 at Tokyo International Airport in March 2007. The photo was taken
from the park on adjacent Keihinjima island. (Photo: Yoshiaki Yamaguchi via Wikimedia Commons)

Moving at a somewhat more sedate pace, sister aircraft JA501A is seen taxying at its home base in
January 2011. Housing the aircraft’s high-performance search radar and a retractable
forward-looking infrared system, the underfuselage “canoe” is clearly visible.
(Photo: Ikarasawa via Wikimedia Commons)

Maritime Safety Agency YS-11 JA8702 is parked next to the organization’s Short Skyvan at
Oita Airport, February 1979 (Photo: Takao Kadokami)
The first YS-11 received by the Japan Coast Guard climbs out from Tokyo International Airport in
January 2004, when Blue Eleven was still seven years away from retirement.
(Photo: Paul Spijkers via Wikimedia Commons)

(Above) Bearing its pre-delivery registration, the later MSA SAAB 340B-SAR JA8951 was sighted
at Faro, Portugal, in 1996. (Photo: Pedro Aragao via Wikimedia Commons)
Its sister aircraft JA8952 is seen taxying in the evening glow at Kansai International in
March 2006. (Photo: Johan Menten via Wikimedia Commons)

Taxying out at Kansai International November 2008 is the second of the two used SAAB 340Bs that
had been converted to +SR standard and confusingly registered out of sequence the year before.
(Photo: Alec Wilson via Wikimedia Commons)

(Above) Sporting the Maritime Safety Agency’s colour scheme, Short Skyvan JA8800 is 
seen parked at Oita Airport in February 1979. (Photo: Takao Kadokami)
(Below) The same aircraft in the Japan Coast Guard colour scheme
(Photo: contri via Wikimedia Commons)

Rotor-Wing Types

The AW139s assigned to the 8th Region bear the name Mihozuru, a combination of the air station
name and the word for crane, a bird that is imbued with deep cultural significance in Japan.
Beating off competition from the Eurocopter EC155 and Sikorsky S-76D,
AgustaWestland landed the contract to replace the JCG’s Bell 212s
in October 2006. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

In the 1990s, the heaviest helicopter type in JCG service was the AS332L1 Super Puma. Delivered
in April 1992, JA6686 Umitaka (Seahawk) was one of the first pair that were built to military
specification to escort vessels carrying plutonium for Japan’s nuclear power stations.
As a result of the sterling service these aircraft and their five-man crews provided
in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Kobe in 1995, two civil examples
were added in 1997. (Photo: 3rd Region/Japan Coast Guard)

Kansai International Airport-based EC225LP JA688A Mimizuku (Horned Owl) hovers over the
deck of Settsu (PLH 07), the patrol vessel assigned to the 5th Region. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard) 

This photo (link) shows Kawasaki-Bell 47G-2A JA7101 at Haneda Airport in May 1973, two months before its retirement.

One of the last three Bell 206B Jetrangers in JCG service, JA6177 Ooruri (Blue and
White Flycatcher) was transferred from Haneda to Sendai to replace a sister aircraft
damaged beyond economical repair in the March 2011 tsunami; all three were
finally decommissioned on March 22, 2019. In view of the extensive time spent
on overwater pollution control and training missions, all these aircraft were
fitted with skid-mounted flotation devices. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)
 Having received the Bell 206B JetRanger named Abi (Red-throated Loon) in June 1991, the service
centered the type’s operations at Sendai, but the arrival of four Bell 505s early in 2018 meant
that their days were numbered. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

As reported in the April 2015 issue of Aireview, the Bell 212 JA9550 and Cessna U206G Stationair (see above) were decommissioned at a ceremony held at Hiroshima Air Station on January 22, 2015.

Ending its career as Setozuru (Seto [Inland Sea] Crane), JA9550 had in the space of 34 years accumulated 9,975 flying hours, a high proportion of which had been spent aboard the Kagoshima-based patrol vessel Hayato. The day after the ceremony, Bell 412EP JA906A arrived from Haneda to perpetuate the Setozuru name.

Other Bell 212s racked up impressive service records with the JCG and in some cases remain in service overseas.  

Shared History

Hirose 1 and 2 on patrol during their nearly 17-year joint tenure at Sendai (Photo: 2nd Region/JCG)

Among the many former JCG Bells 212s that went on to see service with new owners overseas were the two that were for many years based at Sendai.

Then brand-new Bell 212 JA9533 about to depart Oita Airport in February 1979.
(Photo: Takao Kadokami)

Built in 1978, JA9533 entered JCG service in January 1979 and was joined by JA9559 in August 1981, serving as Hirose 1 and Hirose 2, respectively. When retired following Hirose 1’s last coastal patrol flight on March 19, 2008, the JCG website proudly proclaimed that they had together flown the equivalent of something like 112 times around the globe.

Their flying days in Japan over, the aircraft are parked behind JCG Sendai
personnel and a banner thanking them for their many years of service,
March 19, 2008. (Photo: 2nd Region/JCG)

After a few months spent in storage in the hangar at Sendai, they were both auctioned off to Hudson Flight Ltd. LLC of Pampa, Texas, via a Japanese trading company. Photos taken in early September 2008 show the aircraft being prepared for loading on trailers and onward shipment. At this point, as their registrations had been cancelled and their certificates of airworthiness had expired, they would have been classed merely as goods and thus have had all identifying markings erased. They had been put up for sale by Hudson Flight, which gave the total airframe hours achieved with their one careful previous owner as 11,415 for the older and 10,665 for the younger aircraft. (Built in 1988 and operated by the JCG from March 1989 to February 2014, the last Bell 212 received JA9931 had 7,632 hours “on the clock” when put up for auction in May 2016.)

October 2009 saw both aircraft exported for service with Helicopter Transport Services (Canada) (HTSC) Inc. in Carp, Ontario, as C-GHTG and C-GHTL. The latter was photographed when being used in the wildfire suppression role in February 2021 (link), and both are still listed as current.

JCG Says Sayonara to Its Last Bell 212

(Photo: 2nd Region, Japan Coast Guard)

While the JGSDF in February 2016 bade farewell to the last of its Mitsubishi LR-1s, another familiar—and on occasion for many welcome—sight had already disappeared from Japan’s skies.

During the course of 2015, no less than a dozen Japan Coast Guard Bell 212s were withdrawn from service. On January 13, 2016, a ceremony was held in a hangar at the 2nd Region’s operations base at Sendai airport, Miyagi Prefecture. The centre of attention was the last example (JA9930), which had been flown on its last patrol flight along the Miyagi coast before decommissioning on December 11, 2015.

(Above) This November 2011 shot shows JA9930 in its previous guise as the long-serving resident
helicopter at the 9th Region’s base at Niigata airport, where the aircraft bore the name Nihonkai
(Sea of Japan). Initially operated from the region’s patrol vessel Echigo, JA9930 was assigned
to the shore base from February 1990. Clearly visible atop the rotor head is the seesaw-type
Bell stabilizer bar designed to improve handling during the hover.(Photos: [Top] Cp9asngf via Wikimedia Commons; [above] Japan Coast Guard)

During its brief final assignment at Sendai, what was to be the last JCG Bell 212 was named
Shiokaze (Sea Breeze). Having entered service in March 1989, the aircraft was instrumental
in the saving of  61 lives on 39 of its many missions. (Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

Dating back to the days of the Maritime Safety Agency in December 1973, a cumulative total of 38 Bell 212s were operated from 14 JCG air bases and the decks of 12 ships, making the JCG the world’s largest operator of the type.

Among the 150 or so attendees marking the end of a 42-year service career was Tōru Doi, who coincidentally hails from Miyagi and holds the post of Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Tourism, the government body to which the JCG reports. Also present was Richard Thornley, in-country representative managing director for Bell Helicopter, who have seen their pre-eminent position as a supplier of helicopters to the JCG eroded by AgustaWestland and Sikorsky; the last of the recently delivered batch of 11 Sikorsky S-76D replacements was also parked in the hangar during the ceremony.

The camera rolls of the Mainichi Shimbun reporter who made two visits, on December 2 and 11, 2015, can be viewed on the newspaper’s website (link 1) (link 2)

Formerly JA9562, this Bell 212 still retained its JCG colour scheme when owned by Osterman
Helicopter in Sweden in June 2012. Having been repainted red during its time with an Austrian
operator, the aircraft was still in service in British Columbia, Canada, in October 2023 (link).
(Photo: Alan Wilson via Wikimedia Commons)

(Photo [at Kisarazu, undated]: ぱらみりvia Twitter @paramilipic)

After more than 20 years’ service with the MSA (old scheme shown above) and JCG (photo from January 1995 [link]), JA9519 was acquired by a California-based company that undertakes contract firefighting work as N911KW. For some time, the aircraft retained a variation of its JCG colours—for example with Fresno-based Sierra Helitack in 2001 and (link) from 2007—but by 2009 had been finished in a blue, white and gold colour scheme ([link] and below). The aircraft was written off when with Clovis-based Rogers Aviation following a non-fatal forced landing incident when on approach to pick up water from Lake Shastina, California, on July 7, 2021. The sole occupant at the time, the pilot had managed to exit the cockpit before the aircraft sank.

N911KW ‘Helicopter 517’ is prepared for battle at the start of the season near Sonora,
California, in June 2019. (Photo: Stanislaus National Forest via Twitter @Stanislaus_NF)

Having a number of selected people step up to gradually paint out an aircraft’s name traditionally
forms the main event at any JCG aircraft decommissioning ceremony. This photo was taken at
Sendai on June 30, 2015, when the previous Shiokaze (JA9566) was withdrawn from use.
(Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

Returnee

JA9617 in its original guise, at Kansai International Airport, December 2013
(Photo: K’の飛行機写真館 via X [formerly Twitter], @PLANEPHOTOPARK)

After having served with the JCG for 30 years, from 1985 to 2015, the twin-engined Bell 212 JA9617 Kohakuchou (Tundra Swan, 1992: link , 2013: link) was one of the many that were sold to operators or intermediary sales companies in North America. Reportedly registered to KK Aircraft International of Wilmington, Delaware, in 2015, the aircraft was on the books at Calgary, Canada-based Eagle Copters as C-GVWZ (a registration that had previously been used for the delivery of a Dash 8 to Poland) from September 2021 to February 2022, emerging as weight- and cost-reduced, single-engine Eagle Single upgrade conversion. Repatriated to Japan and having reverted to its original registration, JA9617 has been operated primarily from Tokyo Heliport by Akagi Helicopter since the spring of 2022.

Bubble economy. Repatriated as a cost-effective Eagle Single conversion, Akagi Helicopter’s
ex-JCG JA9617 is sometimes fitted with a bubble cockpit side window for enhanced
visibility during hoisting operations.
(Photos, via X [formerly Twitter]: [Top] 鯖缶 @sabakan805;
[above] C.SIGNAL @JA09TANGOROMEO)

(Above) The first of the six Bell 412EPs delivered to the JCG, JA906A was transferred from
Haneda to Hiroshima Air Station in January 2015 and thus changed its name from Inuwashi
(Golden Eagle) to Setozuru (Seto [Inland Sea] Crane). (Below) The aircraft’s crew
bid farewell to the spectators attending the JCG’s 70th anniversary
fleet review on Tokyo Bay in May 2018.
 (Photos: Japan Coast Guard)

Former JA6714’s JGSDF Role

Registered in May 1993 as one of the first pair of Bell 412s operated by the JCG and the first registered in Japan, JA6714 was assigned with JA6713 to Ishigaki Airport in Okinawa in October that year. Both helicopters carried the name Hoshizuna (Star Sand). On March 6, 2012, JA6714 was transferred to the 4th Region at Chubu Airport, prompting a change of name to Isetaka. After a service life that had lasted 28 years and 5 months, including time spent deployed on the patrol vessel Mizuho (PLH 41) in 2014, the arrival of new equipment in the form of an S-76D led to its brief relocation to JCG Hiroshima, where the aircraft was decommissioned on March 26, 2021.

JCG Bell 412 Isetaka during a 4th Region training exercise with the Suzuka (PL 68), October 2018
(Photos: wata via X [formerly Twitter] @Wata_GRF)

The aircraft’s registration was cancelled on November 12, 2021, due to its transfer to the Ministry of Defense. Taken on November 6 (link), a photo shows its fuselage on a trailer, ready for transportation to another location, reportedly the JGSDF’s Kasumigaura Aviation School as an instructional airframe in anticipation of the UH-2’s entry into service.

 Against a dramatic backdrop at Kagoshima airport, the second of the four new JCG
Bell 505 Jetranger X helicopters winds down after landing back from a
manufacturer’s test flight on January 15, 2018.
(Photo: Still from YouTube amateur video, shot by Hayato Gaku [link])

This photo (link) shows Kawasaki-Bell 47G-3B/KH-4 JA7110 at Hiroshima Airport in early 1975.

August 1977. One of the two JCG Hughes 369HSs at JGSDF Akeno, which was to be its
home base from two years later (Photo: Takao Kadokami)

Formerly operated by the Ryukyu Island government, JA9115 parked at Naha Airport,
circa May 1973. (Photo: Akio Misawa)
Featuring JA9115 in the later colour scheme, both aircraft are seen here in an undated
photo taken at Akeno (link).

This photo (link) shows then Hakodate-based S-55 JA7152 at the Haneda Airport maintenance area in April 1967. Characteristic of the early-model S-55s operated by the MSA, all of which were Mitsubishi built, was their inverted-V horizontal stabilizer.

Parked beside the elevated monorail at the MSA’s Haneda base, this photo (link) shows S-55 JA7153 on May 5, 1973, two weeks after its arrival on a base transfer from Hakodate. The cancellation of this aircraft’s registration on March 7, 1974, brought the MSA’s S-55 era to a close.

Seen at Haneda Airport in December 1961 (link), S-55C JA7155 was acquired as a replacement for JA7151.

This photo of MSA S-58 JA7201 (link) was taken from the ice breaker Sōya during the fleet review conducted in Tokyo Bay in May 1972. It was a crew flying this aircraft from Sōya that in 1959 rescued Taro and Jiro, the only two survivors of 15 sled dogs that had had to be left behind at the Antarctic Research Expedition base 11 months before. From December 1973, the aircraft was exhibited at the National Science Museum in Ueno, Tokyo, then placed in that museum’s storage facility in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, but has now been transferred to a new museum that is due to open in Chikusei in May 2022.

The then Maritime Safety Agency’s sole Sikorsky S-62 hovers over the wreck of the Juliana, a
Liberian-registered oil tanker that ran aground off Niigata on November 30, 1971.
This photo is on display at the Japan Coast Museum in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The Mitsubishi-built former MSA Sikorsky S-62 was placed on display at the
Museum of Aeronautical Sciences in August 1989.
(Photo [Sept. 2013]: Alec Wilson via Wikimedia Commons)

Currently assigned to the JCG air station at Kushiro in Hokkaido, Sikorsky S-76C JA6755 bears the
name Shimafukurou (Blakiston’s Fish Owl). At the other end of the country in September 2014,
126 Okinawa residents suggested names for the two S-76Ds that were to be assigned to the
11th Region’s Uruma (PLH 04) and Ryuukyuu (PLH 09). Announced that December, the
winning names were Shimawashi (“Island Eagle”) and Okisashiba (Buzzard), respectively.
(Photo: Japan Coast Guard)

The pilot brings Sekirei (Wagtail)—one of the no less than six S-76 helicopters operated by the
1st Region—to the hover over the deck of the Kushiro-based patrol ship Souya.
(Photo [Oct. 2015]: 1st Region, Japan Coast Guard)

(Above and below) The S-76C+ delivered to the JCG in October 1998 visits JMSDF Ohminato.
Named Raichou (Snow Grouse) when with the 9th Region upon its entry into service, the
aircraft acquired the name Kumataka (Hodgson’s Hawk Eagle) shown here when
transferred to the 1st Region at Kushiro, Hokkaido, early in 2012. (Photos [October 2013]: Amayagan via Wikimedia Commons)

Having arrived there in September 2023 (above), the 14th JCG S-76D JA923B was still lacking a
nickname when at Sendai in early February 2024 (below).
(Photos via X, formerly Twitter: [Top] SS_Spotter @SaKaNa____01; [above] 鯖缶 @sabakan805)

 JCG AIRCRAFT IN-SERVICE DATES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

Aircraft Type	In Service	No.	Notes*
Bell 47 variants	1953–1992	15
S-55	1953–1974	4
Beech 18 variants	1956–1981	11
S-58	1958–1974	3
Cessna 185	1961–1977	2
S-62	1967–1982	1
NAMC YS-11	1969–2011	5
Bell 206B JetRanger II	1973–1996	4
Bell 212	1973–2016	38
Short Skyvan	1975–1997	2
Cessna 206	1977–2015	1
King Air 200	1979–2011	17
K-H 369HS	1979–1993	2
Falcon 900	1989–2020	2	Sept. 27, 1989
Bell 206B JetRanger III	1991–2019	4
AS332L1	1992–	4	Apr. 7, 1992 (2)
Bell 412	1993–	8	Oct. 1, 1993 (5)
S-76C	1995–	6	Feb. 10, 1995 (3)
Saab 340	1997–	4	July 28, 1997
King Air 350	1999–	11	Mar. 24, 1999 (10)
G-V Sea Watch	2005–	3	Jan. 7, 2005
AW139	2008–	21	Mar. 31, 2008
EC225LP (H225)	2008–	14	Mar. 28, 2008
Dash 8-Q300	2009–	9	Feb. 10, 2009 (8)
S-76D	2015–	14	Feb. 25, 2015
Cessna Turbo Skyhawk JT-A	2018–	5	Mar. 1, 2018
Bell 505 Jetranger X	2018–	4	Mar. 27, 2018
Falcon 2000	2019–	6	Del. from Mar. 2019
SUBARU 412EPX	(2025)	6	First order June 2022
(*) Date first aircraft commissioned (number currently in service [Apr. 2021], if differs from total)