TEPCO Ordered to Pay 1.09 B. Yen to N-Accident Evacuees

February 8, 2018

Tokyo- Tokyo District Court ordered Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. on Wednesday to pay a total of 1,095.6 million yen in additional compensation, or some 3 million yen per person, to 318 evacuees from the March 2011 accident at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The lawsuit was filed by a total of 321 people, including former residents of the Odaka district in the city of Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

Based on interim guidelines compiled by the Japanese government on compensation related to the nuclear accident, TEPCO calculated the amount it will pay to each of the evacuees at 8.5 million yen.

Claiming that the amount is insufficient, the plaintiffs demanded in the suit that the company pay an additional 32 million per head for a total of about 10.9 billion yen, including compensation for the loss of their hometown.

Handing down the ruling, judge Yuko Mizuno, who presided over the trial, said the plaintiffs suffered tremendous damage from the accident at the nuclear power plant, which was damaged in the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011.

The focus of the lawsuit had been how much extra compensation would be granted to the plaintiffs as they made their claims based on a law that holds nuclear plant operators liable for damage from nuclear accidents regardless of whether there was negligence on their part, sources familiar with the matter said.

An evacuation order was lifted in July 2016 for the Odaka district, which is located within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

The plaintiffs plan to challenge the day's ruling, dissatisfied at the amount granted.

"The population of the Odaka district has shrunk to one-fifth of the level before the nuclear accident, so we won't be able to restore our community as it was before the disaster," Isao Enei, 76, one of the plaintiffs, said at a press conference in Tokyo. "We can't accept the ruling."

In similar lawsuits filed by evacuees from the nuclear disaster, three district courts last year ordered the payments of compensation exceeding the amounts calculated based on the state guidelines. Jiji Press