Second group lawsuit over Fukushima disaster

January 13, 2015

Group files fresh complaint over Fukushima nuclear disaster

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150113p2g00m0dm077000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A group of citizens including some from Fukushima Prefecture on Tuesday filed a second criminal complaint against a former nuclear safety official and eight others, arguing they failed to take necessary preventive measures in the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

It follows one filed in June 2012 against Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s then Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and others for causing the disaster at the utility's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011.

Among the accused this time were Yoshinori Moriyama, a former official in charge of nuclear disaster countermeasures at the now-defunct Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, officials at TEPCO and others.

In the written complaint filed with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, the group said the nine were responsible for a number of citizens' exposure to radiation in the Fukushima crisis by neglecting to take countermeasures for possible severe accidents.

The prosecutors' office is continuing its investigation into the first case after an independent judicial panel of citizens decided last year that Katsumata and two other TEPCO officials merit indictment in the wake of the prosecutors' decision not to indict them.