Former Tepco execs ordered to pay $95bn in Fukushima damages

Jul 13 (Nikkei) - A Tokyo court on Wednesday ordered former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. to pay the utility some 13 trillion yen ($95 billion) in total damages for failing to prevent the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The ruling in favor of shareholders who filed the lawsuit in 2012 is the first to find former TEPCO executives liable for compensation after the nuclear plant in northeastern Japan caused one of the worst nuclear disasters in history triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

In the lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court, 48 shareholders sought a total of around 22 trillion yen ($160 billion) in damages to be paid to the company, the largest amount ever claimed for compensation in a civil lawsuit in Japan, according to a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

Among five defendants -- former Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro, former President Masataka Shimizu and former Managing Director Akio Komori -- the court found all but Komori liable to pay the damages.

The ruling said that the utility's countermeasures for the tsunami "fundamentally lacked safety awareness and a sense of responsibility."

Source: ANNnewsCH

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