Compensation for Fukushima firms

March 3, 2015

Gov't, TEPCO to put off plan to end compensation payments to Fukushima firms

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150303p2a00m0na009000c.html

The central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) have decided not to abide by a draft plan for the time being to stop paying damages to business operators mainly in evacuation zones in Fukushima Prefecture, it has been learned.

The draft plan stipulated that the government and TEPCO, the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, will stop paying compensation for business damages caused by the 2011 nuclear disaster to the business operators in February 2016. The government and TEPCO have decided to postpone the original plan because it has been pointed out that many business operators will be forced out of business if they discontinue compensation payments.

The government and TEPCO will also shelve their plan to terminate compensation payments one year later to business operators outside the evacuation zones for damages caused by harmful rumors related to the nuclear disaster.

The business operators that are subject to compensation for business damages are those in 13 municipalities that were designated as evacuation or restricted zones in Fukushima Prefecture in the wake of the outbreak of the nuclear disaster. In the case of nuclear evacuation zones, not only those business operators that have been closed for business but also those that have moved out to resume business elsewhere and those that have gone out of business are also subject to the compensation scheme. A total of 458.1 billion yen had been paid to those business operators as of the end of January 2015.

With respect to the draft compensation plan, a senior official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said, "The guidelines for the government's Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Nuclear Damage Compensation stipulate that there is a 'certain limit' to the compensation period. Paying damages for an extended period of time will not lead to reconstruction."

Nevertheless, the government and TEPCO have decided to put off the termination plan for the time being because when they presented the draft proposal in December 2014, they met furious opposition from the business community and others who said that business operators continued to suffer damage, among other complaints.

As for compensation payments made for four years through February 2015, TEPCO had responded to requests for lump-sum payments or installments for every three months. But the government and TEPCO are now studying how to make payments for March and onward, sources say.

Meanwhile, compensation for damages caused by harmful rumors stemming from the nuclear disaster had been paid mainly to tour operators and other businesses. Total compensation payments, including those caused by shipment restrictions for agricultural, forestry and marine products, made as of the end of January 2015, totaled 1.3 trillion yen. According to the draft plan, the government and TEPCO had proposed to discontinue compensation payments to business operators such as tour operators in February 2016, although they planned to continue to pay damages to business operators in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry who were greatly affected by the nuclear accident.

TEPCO's compensation scheme covers a broad range of categories such as payments to individuals for psychological damage (100,000 yen per person per month) and compensation payments to individuals for their "incapacity" to work or for their decreased incomes as a result of their evacuation. Such compensation payments made so far amount to about 4.71 trillion yen.

It was already decided that compensation payments for psychological damage would be discontinued one year after evacuation orders were lifted, while payments for incapacity damage were terminated at the end of February 2015. While the framework of a compensation scheme for individuals has been decided, no decisive solutions to building a consensus for compensation to business operators have been found nearly four years after the outbreak of the nuclear disaster.

March 03, 2015(Mainichi Japan)