Japan’s Sendai High Court, on Wednesday, ordered the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) to pay $9.5 million in compensation to residents over the 2011 tsunami-triggered disaster, media reported.
TEPCO is the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
According to the Kyodo news agency, the court admitted that about 3,600 people, who filed lawsuits for the damages, deserve compensation.
It was the first time for a high court to acknowledge the state’s responsibility for the disaster in about 30 similar lawsuits filed across Japan.
The court took into account three considerations: whether it was possible to predict a tsunami during the earthquake, take measures to prevent damage and whether the amount of compensation determined by the Japanese government was fair enough.
In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The incidence led to the leakage of radioactive materials and the shutdown of the plant.
The accident is considered to be the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 tragedy in Chernobyl, then Soviet Ukraine. (Sputnik/NAN)
