Two fishing boats capsized off western Japan on Monday after a collision with a Taiwanese cargo ship, leaving one person dead and another missing, officials said.

The two Japanese-flagged fishing vessels, with a total of four people on board, collided with the 13,000-tonne Wan Hai five kilometres west of Kansai airport in Osaka Bay shortly after dawn, a coastguard official said.

“All four people on the two fishing boats were thrown into the water following the collision, while there were no reports of injuries from the Taiwanese vessel,” a coastguard official said.