Japan Press Weekly

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2016 October 26 - November 1 [LABOR]

TEPCO worker seeks official recognition of his depression as caused by Fukushima damage-related work

A 35-year-old male worker of Tokyo Electric Power Company on October 31 filed with the Tokyo Chuo Labor Standards Inspection Office a request to recognize that his depression was caused by overwork and stress from work related to compensation to victims from the Fukushima nuclear damage.

In September 2011, the worker, Ichii Tadafumi, was assigned to a department dealing with compensation claims made by businesses affected by the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Eighteen months later, he was assigned to a team in charge of the handling of complicated and difficult cases and making decisions on whether to pay compensation in each case.

After working more than 100 hours of overtime on a monthly basis and experiencing chronic sleep deprivation, Ichii was diagnosed with depression in September 2013.

At a press conference held after the filing, Ichii said, “It is really painful to know that nearly 100,000 Fukushima residents are still forced to stay away from their hometowns. As a TEPCO employee, I want to offer my apologies. Please understand I have to obey the company’s orders.”

Ichii revealed that TEPCO ordered its workers to just apologize to Fukushima victims and to keep the amount of compensation as low as possible.

TEPCO notified Ichii that the company will dismiss him if he is unable to return to work before his sick leave period expires on November 5.