Court rejects Fukushima crisis damages order against ex-TEPCO execs
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese high court on Friday overturned a ruling ordering former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. to pay the utility damages for failing to prevent the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The decision by the Tokyo High Court came after a district court ordered the former executives in July 2022 to pay around 13 trillion yen ($90 billion) in compensation. Both the defendants and shareholders seeking the damages had appealed the ruling.
The district court found the four former executives liable for compensation after the combined impact of a massive earthquake and tsunami on the plant in northeastern Japan in March 2011 caused one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
The focal point of the appeal trial was whether the management's decisions on tsunami countermeasures were appropriate after a TEPCO unit estimated in 2008 that a tsunami of up to 15.7 meters could hit the plant based on the government's long-term earthquake assessment made public in 2002.
The district court found the late former Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, former President Masataka Shimizu, and former Vice Presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro liable for damages. Katsumata's lawsuit was taken over by his heir.
The acquittals of Takekuro and Muto in a criminal suit were finalized in March. Charges against Katsumata were dismissed after his death last October.
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