TOKYO (AP) – A Tokyo court yesterday held only the operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant responsible for paying damages to dozens of evacuees.
The Tokyo High Court also slashed the amount to half of what the lower court had ordered and relieved the government of responsibility – a decision that plaintiffs and their lawyers criticised as belittling their suffering and the severity of the disaster.
The court ordered only the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), to pay a total of JPY23.5 million (USD165,000) to 44 of the 47 plaintiffs, while not holding the government accountable.
Yesterday’s ruling apparently backpedalled from an earlier decision in March 2018, when the Tokyo District Court held both the government and TEPCO accountable for the disaster, which the ruling said could have been prevented if they both took better precautionary measures, ordering both to pay JPY59 million (USD414,400) in damages.
Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant melted after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011, releasing massive amounts of radiation in the area and displacing more than 160,000 people at one point. About 27,000 of them are still unable to return home.
The government has pushed for the decontamination of affected areas and the reopening of no-go zones, and has urged evacuees to return to their homes while cutting back support for them.
The government-set compensation programme, which is mostly based on distance from the plant and radiation levels, has triggered divisions and discrimination among communities.