Court Denies Responsibility of TEPCO Managers

Tokyo High Court decided that former managers of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were unable to predict severe accident in 2011 and dismissed decision of the first court that had found their responsibility. The new court decision effectively admitted that no one was responsible for the accident, causing deep disappointment of the plaintiffs and evacuees from Fukushima. 

The lawsuit was filed by shareholders of TEPCO with an argument that the managers gave damage on the company failing in taking necessary measures to prevent severe accident from tsunami. Tokyo District Court sentenced in 2022 that TEPCO could predict major earthquake based on the long-term assessment by government of Japan in 2002, which indicated possibility of great earthquake in offshore Fukushima, and ordered the managers to pay 13 trillion yen.

 

The high court overturned the decision. It judged that only measure to prevent severe accident in a nuclear power plant had been stopping the reactors. To stop the reactor, the managers needed credible reason for that. The court saw no sufficient reason in the long-term assessment for the managers to decide to stop all the reactors before the accident in 2011.

 

The TEPCO made an estimation based on the long-term assessment in 2008 that tsunami with height of 15.7 meters could be arriving on Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Nevertheless, the managers did not take any measure such as building a wall to protect nuclear reactors. The high court found no reason for the managers to take a preemptive measure which might have disturbed supply of electricity.

 

It is supposed that some decisions of the Supreme Court were in the background of the high court’s decision. In 2022, the Supreme Court denied responsibility of the government of Japan to compensate for the damage in Fukushima plant in a lawsuit by sufferers of Fukushima. The court also found two of TEPCO managers not guilty for professional negligence in resulting in death or injury in March 2025. There is a trend of assessment of the earthquake in 2011 that the natural disaster was too big for the government or TECPO to predict its consequence.

 

Victims and sufferers of the nuclear accident cannot be satisfied with the result drawn by the court, which found no responsibility for the people who were operating highly dangerous power plant. Over 24 thousand people are still living away from their home town, escaping from negative impact of radiation emitted from the plant. Even though TEPCO and Japanese government are not responsible for compensation, they need to make utmost efforts for reconstruction of Fukushima, which is still on its halfway.

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