To Appeal Okawa School Tsunami Ruling: Ishinomaki Mayor

May 7, 2018

Sendai, Miyagi Pref.- The Ishinomaki city government in Miyagi Prefecture has decided to appeal a high court ruling ordering the city and the northeastern Japan prefecture to pay damages over 2011 tsunami-caused deaths of students at a municipal elementary school.

On Monday, Ishinomaki Mayor Hiroshi Kameyama called on the city assembly to convene an extraordinary session to discuss the municipal government's move against Sendai High Court's order.

In its ruling last month, the court blamed the city's Okawa Elementary School for failing to forecast the monster tsunami unleashed by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, but the ruling lacked a scientific basis, Kameyama claimed.

In response, the assembly will hold such a meeting on Tuesday.

Kameyama admitted that it is not easy for the proposal to gain approval by the assembly, which is divided over whether the case should be brought to the Supreme Court.

In the lawsuit filed by families of 23 of 74 Okawa students killed in the tsunami, the high court in the Miyagi capital acknowledged the school side's negligence and ordered the municipal and prefectural governments to pay a total of 1,436 million yen in damages.

"I'm very disappointed (at the city government's decision)," said Hiroyuki Konno, 56, who lost his 12-year-old eldest son, Daisuke, in the tragedy. "Seven years have already passed, and there would be more years to go," he added.

Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai has expressed intention to go along with whatever decision the city makes on the lawsuit. Jiji Press