Residents of Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture sued the government and TEPCO over the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Part of the plan was canceled, and only TEPCO was ordered to pay compensation.
The lawsuit claimed that about 1,300 residents of Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, suffered mental distress from the nuclear accident, and sought compensation from the national government and Tokyo Electric Power Company.
The first trial ordered the government and TEPCO to pay a total of more than 200 million yen in compensation, saying that the accident could have been avoided if the government had exercised its authority to ask TEPCO to take safety measures.
In the second instance judgment on the 10th, the presiding judge of the Sendai High Court, Hisao Kobayashi, said, ``There is a high possibility that the occurrence of a serious accident could have been avoided if countermeasures were taken, and the appropriate authority was not exercised until the accident occurred. The government's responsibility is serious," he said, but he did not accept the government's responsibility for compensation, saying, "We cannot conclude that the accident could have been prevented with the necessary measures."
On the other hand, TEPCO's liability was acknowledged and ordered to pay 326 million yen, which is more than the first trial.
In a class action lawsuit over the nuclear power plant accident, the Supreme Court ruled in June last year that it denied the country's responsibility for compensation, and the Sendai High Court's ruling is in line with that decision.