Yasuo Takamatsu: Japanese Man Makes 763 Dives Searching for Wife Swept Away by 2011 Tsunami 

For nearly 15 years, Yasuo Takamatsu has returned to the waters off Onagawa, Japan, searching for his wife, Yuko, who disappeared after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

By March 2026, Takamatsu had completed his 763rd dive, yet he had still not found his wife’s remains. He continues to return to the same waters twice a month, turning what began as a desperate search into a deeply personal ritual of remembrance.

His extraordinary journey was documented by the BBC World Service in its podcast Diving for Yuko, which followed Takamatsu during his 763rd dive and explored the grief, memory, and devotion behind his years-long search.

How Yasuo Takamatsu and Yuko Met

Takamatsu first met Yuko in 1988 when she was 25 and working at the Onagawa branch of the 77 Bank. At the time, Takamatsu was serving as a soldier in Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force.

He was immediately drawn to her smile and gentle personality, and the two eventually fell in love and built a family together.

More than two decades later, their lives were changed forever by the disaster that struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011.

Their Final Day Together

On the morning of the tsunami, Takamatsu drove Yuko to the bank where she worked in Onagawa, then took his mother-in-law to a hospital in nearby Ishinomaki.

At 2:46 p.m., a massive earthquake struck the region.

Takamatsu recalled the ground shaking for several minutes. As news of the approaching tsunami spread, he tried to make his way back toward Onagawa while desperately trying to find out whether his family was safe.

His son was eventually confirmed safe, but he could not reach his daughter or Yuko.

Yuko was among the employees at the 77 Bank’s Onagawa branch who evacuated to the building’s rooftop. The tsunami, however, reached far higher than expected and swept away 12 of the 13 people who had taken refuge there. Yuko was among those who disappeared.

Yuko managed to send a message to her husband during the chaos.

She asked if he was okay and told him that she wanted to go home.

Her phone was later recovered near the bank. An unsent message found on the device indicated the tsunami’s enormous scale.

For Takamatsu, those messages became an enduring reminder of his wife’s final moments.

Two Years of Searching on Land

After the disaster, Takamatsu searched for Yuko at evacuation centers, hospitals and through the devastated areas around Onagawa.

He spent more than two years searching for her on land, hoping she might have survived or that he would find a clue to her whereabouts.

But as the rubble was cleared and the search on land produced no answers, Takamatsu began to believe that Yuko may have been swept out to sea.

He eventually decided to take the search into the water himself.

I started to think she is in the sea and that’s why I started diving,  he recalled during the BBC documentary.

He learned to scuba dive and began searching the waters where the tsunami had taken his wife.

763 Dives Later, Yasuo Takamatsu Still Searches

Since beginning his underwater search, Takamatsu has returned to the sea again and again.

During his 763rd dive in 2026, he continued looking through debris on the seabed for any sign of Yuko.

He told the BBC that each dive feels less like visiting a grave and more like going to meet his wife.

It feels like going to see her… It feels more like going to meet her, he said.

The underwater landscape has changed dramatically over the years. Debris left behind by the tsunami remains beneath the surface, while some of it has become home to marine life and developed into natural reefs.

Yet Takamatsu continues searching.

He told the BBC that if he happened to find remains belonging to Yuko, his search would not end there. He would also want to help find the remains of other people who disappeared in the disaster.

When I’m looking through the debris, I think she couldn’t have come back up through this. She must not have been able to make it back up, he said.

Thinking about the possibility can still bring him to tears.

A Search Driven by Love

Nearly 15 years after the tsunami, Takamatsu has not received the answer he has spent years searching for.

But he continues to return to the sea twice every month.

His 763rd dive did not bring Yuko home. At the end of the day, he packed away his diving equipment and returned home.

Then, like he has done countless times before, he prepared to return to the water again.