In four class proceedings in which people who evacuated to various places due to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station sought damages from the government and TEPCO, the Supreme Court said, "The actual tsunami is larger than expected, and the government Even if TEPCO ordered the necessary measures, it is highly possible that the accident was unavoidable. "



Reporter Hiroshi Izawa of the Ministry of Social Affairs commented on the issues of the trial and the judgment of the Supreme Court.



(The video is 3 minutes and 8 seconds. It cannot be viewed on data broadcasting.)

The issue of the trial is

The issue of this trial is


▼ Did the country predict that a huge tsunami would come before the earthquake?


▼ If you can predict, is it possible to prevent the accident if TEPCO took effective measures?

The Supreme Court's decision

In looking at the Supreme Court's decision, let's take a look at the movements of the government and TEPCO regarding earthquakes and tsunamis before the earthquake.

Nine years before the earthquake, in 2002, the National Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion published an earthquake forecast called "long-term evaluation."

This means that within the next 30 years, there is a 20% chance that a magnitude 8 class earthquake will occur over a wide area on the Pacific Ocean side, including off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture.



Furthermore, based on this long-term evaluation, TEPCO has compiled an estimate that a tsunami of up to 15.7 meters will hit three years before the earthquake.

Based on these forecasts and estimates, the Supreme Court examined whether effective measures could be taken.


As a result, it was concluded that the accident could not be prevented even if the government took measures such as installing a seawall on TEPCO based on these measures.

The reason is that


the actual earthquake was much larger than expected in the long-term evaluation, and


the tsunami that rushed to the nuclear power plant was larger than estimated


.



In other words, it was decided that the accident could not be prevented and the national responsibility could not be blamed, regardless of whether or not countermeasures were taken, assuming that a huge earthquake or tsunami that exceeded the specialized knowledge that existed before the earthquake occurred. It is.



These were decisions in line with what the government had insisted on in the trial.

Does the Supreme Court's decision affect the whole country?

In these four trials, there were many judgments that recognized the responsibility of the state in the first and second trials, but the Supreme Court denied it.



In these trials, TEPCO's liability and the total amount of compensation of 1.4 billion yen have already been confirmed.

Since it was said that the government was not responsible, TEPCO will bear all compensation.



In addition, nearly 30 other similar class proceedings have been filed all over the country, and the judgment is expected to affect these proceedings.