Four former executives from the Fukushima nuclear plant involved in the 2011 disaster were ordered by a Tokyo court to pay damages amounting to around 13 trillion yen ($94.8 billion), according to media reports. The lawsuit was brought against the former officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) by shareholders for their role in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster that was caused by a tsunami. The case was handled by Hiroyuki Kawai who represented the shareholders and made sure that the TEPCO executives ended up paying fines for the disaster.
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“Warnings have to be issued that, if you make wrong decisions or do wrong, you must compensate with your own money,” he told a press conference in 2012 according to an AFP report.
“You may have to sell your house. You may have to spend your retirement years in misery. In Japan, nothing can be resolved, and no progress can be made without assigning personal responsibility.”
The joy was palpable among the plaintiffs after the judgement was passed as they celebrated the victory with signs that read “shareholders win” and “responsibility recognised.”
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TEPCO issued a statement about the incident but declined to comment on the judgement, according to AFP. In the statement, they said – “We again express our heartfelt apology to people in Fukushima and members of the society broadly for causing trouble and worry with the disaster”.
The TEPCO executives were accused of ignoring research that warned them about the potential disaster that resulted in the worst nuclear disaster in the world since Chernobyl.
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