The Tokyo High Court on Friday overturned a district court ruling against the former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) which had ordered them to pay compensation of 13 trillion yen ($90 billion) for their failure to prevent the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The High Court’s ruling centered around TEPCO management’s failure to implement countermeasures following the government’s long-term earthquake assessment in 2002, which predicted a possible tsunami of up to 15.6 meters. The court ruled in favor of the executives, finding that the massive tsunami of up to 15 meters that caused the disaster was not foreseeable. Presiding Judge Toshikazu Kino emphasized that the government’s assessment did not provide a sufficient basis for the management to efficiently safeguard against the huge tsunami.
The ruling runs contrary to the National Diet Investigation Commission’s (NAIIC) report in 2012, which concluded that the accident was a “manmade disaster,” resulting from the “collusion between the government, the regulators and Tokyo Electric Power Co.” The report further stated that the “root causes were the organizational and regulatory systems that supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions.” The NAIIC criticized TEPCO for its poor governance and lack of safety culture, particularly regarding the risk of a predicted station blackout due to flooding. The report also recommended amending nuclear power laws and regulations in Japan to emphasize the primary responsibility of operators for safeguarding their nuclear facilities.
The civil suit was brought by 48 shareholders against the former executives of TEPCO over the nuclear disaster, which was triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Although the plant’s systems detected the earthquake and automatically shut down the nuclear reactors, the subsequent tsunami overwhelmed the facility, causing massive chemical explosions. This occurred after the floodwater disabled emergency generators, leading to the reactors overheating. The incident had killed more than 180,000 people along Japan’s north-east coast.
The Tokyo District Court in July 2022 ruled that the former executives were liable for compensation after finding that the government’s assessment was “scientifically credible” and that a massive tsunami hitting the plant was foreseeable.
The High Court ruling follows Human Rights Now’s recent submission to the UN Human Rights Council’s 59th session, which noted that more than 30,000 people displaced by the Fukushima disaster are still designated as internally displaced persons (IDPs) and face persistent human rights violations.
