Japan Press Weekly

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2014 July 23 - 29 [POLITICS]

Town assembly asks for JCP’s help to obtain compensation for Fukushima disaster

Representatives of the Namie Town Assembly in Fukushima Prefecture on July 25 visited the Japanese Communist Party head office in Tokyo, requesting JCP Chair Shii Kazuo to help the town’s residents get adequate compensation for damages caused by the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.

All the approximately 16,000 townspeople are still unable to return to their hometown due to the extent of radioactive contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, has been paying 100,000 yen a month to each evacuee.

In May 2013, the town government filed a complaint with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), seeking a drastic increase in the amount in compensation because their lives as evacuees was being prolonged significantly. This year, the ADR offered a compromise proposal that the power company pay an additional 50,000 yen a month to each sufferer for two years. The municipality expressed its will in May to accept the proposal, but TEPCO rejected it in June.

Oguro Keizo, speaker of the town assembly, asked for the JCP’s help in pushing the national government to urge the utility to accept the reconciliation plan.

Shii replied, “We promise to do our utmost to resolve this issue by taking it up in the upcoming Diet session.”

Past related article:
> 10,000 Fukushima residents use ADR to demand fair compensation from TEPCO [May 31, 2013]