News Supreme Court: Govt Not Responsible for Fukushima Disaster

The ruling, which reversed three of the four high-court decisions that acknowledged the government's responsibility, could affect about 30 other similar lawsuits across the country. [...] The plaintiffs in the four lawsuits, many of whom are still displaced in and outside of Fukushima, demanded compensation for losing livelihoods and communities because of the disaster. Seiju Nanbara, who joined the lawsuit two years after he evacuated from his home in Minamisoma, just north of the wrecked plant, to Chiba, said he and other plaintiffs who heard the ruling in the courtroom were speechless because they were so disappointed. "The ruling only looked at the government, not us," the 62-year-old said. "I don't think the judges understood or even tried to understand our pain." [...] Currently, only TEPCO is obliged to cover damages worth over 1.4 billion yen ($10 million).

Click to expand...

In the closely watched ruling, the Tokyo District Court said the former chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Tsunehisa Katsumata, and three other former executives failed to fulfil their duty to implement the utmost safety precautions despite knowing the risks of a serious accident in case of a major tsunami. It said they could have prevented the disaster if they had taken available scientific data more seriously and acted sooner.

Click to expand...

The four former executives' failure to take action for more than two years before the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima plant was a major cause of the accident, according to the ruling. [...] The ruling "was filled with anger toward the TEPCO executives for failing to take anti-tsunami measures," said Hiroyuki Kawai, one of the lawyers for the 48 shareholders who took part in the lawsuit, at a news conference. Another lawyer, Yuichi Kaido, pointed out the strong wording in the ruling may have stemmed from a visit to the Fukushima plant site in October 2021 by Presiding Judge Yoshihide Asakura and others as part of court proceedings.

Click to expand...