Osaka Court Orders TEPCO to Pay 90 M. Yen for Nuclear Evacuations

Osaka, Sept. 2 (Jiji Press)–Osaka District Court on Wednesday ordered Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. to pay about 90 million yen in total damages to some plaintiffs in a lawsuit over evacuations following the March 2011 accident at TEPCO’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. The lawsuit was filed by 221 people from 79 households, including evacuees to the Kinki region in western Japan. The court ordered damages payments to 103 plaintiffs from 53 households. Based on a 2022 Supreme Court ruling, the district court did not recognize the government’s responsibility for the nuclear accident, saying that there was a substantial possibility that the accident could have occurred even if the government had exercised regulatory authority. Meanwhile, the court acknowledged that TEPCO was responsible under the nuclear damage compensation law, regardless of any negligence. At a press conference later on Wednesday, Akiko Morimatsu, a plaintiff who evacuated with her child from the northeastern city of Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, to the western city of Osaka, criticized that the district court’s ruling merely followed the Supreme Court ruling. “It’s almost like a suicide by judiciary,” Morimatsu said. The Nuclear Regulation Authority issued a statement saying that it will strictly implement new regulatory standards that are based on remorse for the accident and lessons learned from it. TEPCO said that it will scrutinize the latest ruling and respond sincerely. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]