Japan Press Weekly

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2015 December 2 - 8 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Bereaved family of Fukushima-disaster-related suicide reaches court-mediated settlement with TEPCO

The bereaved family of a Fukushima farmer who killed himself three months after the 2011 nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, in a lawsuit seeking compensation from the plant operator, on December 1 reached a settlement mediated by the Tokyo District Court.

The farmer, Kanno Shigekiyo, kept 40 milk cows in Fukushima’s Soma City. In the wake of the serious accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March four years ago, Kanno became unable to sell milk and was forced to abandon his animals. In June the same year, he took his own life in a barn next to his house at the age of 54. On the wall of the barn was written, “If only the nuclear power plant had not been there. The plant has dampened my spirit to continue to live.”

Claiming that Kanno committed suicide because he was deprived of his business due to the nuclear accident, his family in the lawsuit demanded the payment of 120 million yen in damages from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

The family’s lawyers said that TEPCO did not apologize but the plaintiffs decided to settle the case as TEPCO showed its intent to pay settlement money based on the assumption that the accident had caused the suicide. The amount of the payment was not disclosed.

Shigekiyo’s wife, Vanessa, on the same day commented on the settlement, “The settlement is not entirely satisfactory, but we decided to accept it in order to go back to our quiet life as soon as possible.”

Past related article:
> Court acknowledges man’s suicide as 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster-related [July 1, 2015]