The case, which was decided in the Supreme Court on Friday, concerned the first of several similar lawsuits in Japan. Behind the lawsuits are around 3,700 former Fukushima residents who were forced to leave their homes after the 2011 disaster.
The victims demanded state compensation for the damages and lost income that the accident caused, but the court made the assessment that the state can not be attributed any responsibility.
According to the verdict, the disaster could not have been avoided even if the government had ordered that the ramparts around the nuclear power plant be strengthened, as the plaintiffs claimed during the trial.
Assumed to be indicative
The message from the Supreme Court is a great defeat for the thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate the area around the nuclear power plant. Around 30 similar lawsuits are currently underway in Japanese courts, and Friday’s verdict is expected to guide future decisions, writes the news agency AP.
The lawyer Izutari Managi, who brought the victims’ case in the case, describes the verdict as “highly politicized”.
– We questioned whether administrative staff really did their job properly before the accident, but the judges did not answer that question at all, he says to AP.
The disappointment is also great among the plaintiffs.
– I do not think the judges understood or even tried to understand our pain, says Seiju Nanbara who was forced to leave his home in Minamisoma after the disaster.
Managers at the nuclear power plant were acquitted
Compensation for Fukushima’s victims has long been a contentious issue in Japan. More than 15,000 people died in the disaster, and more than half a million were forced out of their hometowns due to the harmful radiation.
Tepco, the company that owned the nuclear power plant, has previously been ordered to pay compensation to those affected behind the lawsuits, writes AP. Three former managers at the company were acquitted in 2019 of accusations of not having taken the necessary safety measures prior to the accident. The decision was appealed, and a new verdict is expected in January.