Japan Press Weekly

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2012 March 28 - April 3 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Lawyers work to get all nuclear accident victims relieved

A liaison council of lawyers supporting environmental pollution sufferers confirmed on March 31 that it will strengthen its effort to help relieve victims of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The new action policy was confirmed at a symposium in Tokyo commemorating the 40th anniversary of the lawyers’ national action group. It also decided to campaign for the decommissioning of all nuclear power plants throughout Japan.

Council representative Nakajima Akira in his keynote speech stressed the need to gain from lessons obtained by past lawsuits filed by patients of the drug-induced SMON disease and Minamata disease in order to tackle the new tasks seeking redress.

Lawyer Managi Izutaro, a member of a lawyers’ group supporting victims of the Fukushima nuclear accident, reported on their collective bargaining sessions with Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the crippled nuclear reactors, in which about 600 small business owners successfully forced the power company to pay them 1.3 billion yen in compensation. He stated that similar actions are now being prepared in Saitama, Tochigi, and Chiba prefectures.

Lawyer Itai Masaru talked about citizens’ court struggles calling for the closure of the Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture. The purpose of the legal action is to increase public opinion calling for a change in the national government’s energy policy, he said.