Japan Press Weekly

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2013 December 11 - 17 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Fukushima farmers seek liability for damages from TEPCO

The Fukushima Federation of Farmers Movement (Fukushima Nominren) came to Tokyo on December 12 to demand in face-to-face meetings that TEPCO and the ministry of economy (METI) as “perpetrators” promptly admit liability for damages caused by the nuclear disaster at the TEPCO Fukushima plant.

Fukushima Nominren members met TEPCO and METI officials in a meeting room in the House of Representatives Members’ Office Building.

A farmer who took over the farmland of another farmer he knows complained that the utility is refusing to compensate for losses related to this additional land. He said, “Someone always has to look after the land to prevent insects, weeds and animals from causing damage to surrounding farmland.”

In response, a TEPCO official said that the farmer should have taken into consideration the nuclear accident and avoided taking on more land.

The farmer responded saying in anger, “Are you saying my decision was wrong because I continued farming in spite of the nuclear crisis?”

Other farmers also protested that many farmers in Fukushima will be forced to abandon farming and that if nothing covers that loss, Fukushima agriculture will have no other choice but to fall into decline.

Other complains were: TEPCO is terminating reparations for the cost of inspections to check radiation levels of farm products in Fukushima; the electricity company is seeking the return of what it claims to have “overpaid” in compensation to fruit farmers; fruits and mountain vegetables which were growing at the time of the accident are excluded from compensatory measures; and nothing has yet been decided in regard to provision of fishing nets and equipment.