HONOLULU -- A high-ranking member of the Japanese government was in Hawaii Sunday for a briefing on the recovery effort of Ehime Maru.

Makiko Tanaka met with Navy officials, and was shown salvage divers at Pearl Harbor.

Tanaka is Japan's Minister for Foreign affairs. She arrived at Pearl Harbor to visit the Navy personnel involved in the recovery of the Ehime Maru.

Tanaka had been in San Francisco and stopped over in Hawaii on her way back to Japan.

First, she was shown U.S. Navy divers at the diving complex at Pearl Harbor. A diver presented her a commemorative coin.

Then she attended a meeting with Adm. Thomas Fargo, who briefed her on the recovery effort.

That recovery is not going as well they had hoped.

The Ehime Maru sank after it was hit by the nuclear Submarine USS Greenville Feb. 9. Nine crewmembers, some of them students, died in the sinking.

Several attempts to lift the Ehime Maru have failed. Crews aboard the Rockwater 2 salvage ship are now trying to put a sling on the boat in 2,000 feet of water and lift it with a plate, then tow it to shallow water.

Tanaka made a short statement after the briefing. "I am impressed. But at the same time, it seems the recovery effort of the Ehime Maru is taking more time than expected," she said through an interpreter. "We know the families are very much concerned, so this really hurts."

Then she was escorted to the Japanese naval vessel JDS Chihaya, which is a submarine recovery ship.

She made a quick acknowledgment of Japanese recovery divers and then she hurried off to say a few words to the crew.

From that meeting she headed back to Japan.