Northeastern Japan City to Settle Dispute over Tsunami Death

June 8, 2018

Kamaishi, Iwate Pref.- Takenori Noda, mayor of the northeastern Japan city of Kamaishi, said Friday that the city government will accept a settlement plan proposed by a high court in February over the death of a woman in the March 2011 tsunami.

Under the plan, the city government is expected to pay 489,500 yen to the family of the then 31-year-old female temporary worker at a city kindergarten, who died after evacuating to a disaster response center in the Unosumai district in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture.

The family, who demanded some 35 million yen in compensation from the Kamaishi government, is also seen accepting the plan proposed by Sendai High Court in neighboring Miyagi Prefecture.

The city government has acknowledged its responsibility as a municipality and submitted to the high court documents including apologies to tsunami victims.

The victim's family claimed that the woman died after fleeing to the disaster response center, which was not a tsunami shelter, because the city government failed to communicate the locations of appropriate evacuation sites for tsunami.

In April last year, Morioka District Court in Iwate judged that the city government had no obligation to tell local residents that the center was not a tsunami shelter, turning down the family's claim.

In February, Sendai High Court recommended that the family and the city government should settle their dispute.

In a written reply submitted to the high court in May, the city government expressed its "deep appreciation for the (temporary) worker's attempt to save kindergarten children at the risk of her life."

"We have to take our administrative responsibility seriously, given the fact that there was a life that could have been saved," Noda told a news conference on Friday.

According to the complaint and other sources, many residents evacuated to the disaster response center following the March 2011 earthquake, although it was not designated as a tsunami shelter. The city government said the number of people killed there in the subsequent tsunami is estimated at 162. Jiji Press