According to Japanese news reports of the ruling by the Maebashi District Court in Gunma Prefecture, the court said
that the disaster, considered the worst nuclear calamity since Chernobyl in 1986, was “predictable” and that it was “possible to prevent the accident.”
The court ordered the government and Tepco to pay damages totaling 38 million yen, or about $335,000, to
62 residents who were evacuated from the towns around the Fukushima plant and who relocated to Gunma.
Japanese Government and Utility Are Found Negligent in Nuclear Disaster -
By MOTOKO RICHMARCH 17, 2017
TOKYO — The Japanese government and the electric utility
that operated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were negligent in not preventing the meltdowns in 2011 that forced thousands of people to flee the area, a district court in eastern Japan ruled on Friday.
He said the damages were “not big enough.”
Representatives of groups that have sued the government
and Tepco for negligence said they were more interested in the principle of the case than the amount of compensation awarded.
It was the first time that a court determined that both the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, and the government bore responsibility for the nuclear disaster
that followed a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
“We again apologize from the bottom of our hearts for giving great troubles
and concerns to the residents of Fukushima and other people in society by causing the accident of the nuclear power station of our company,” Isao Ito, a spokesman, said.
