Rice farmers claim not covered by settlement

 November 5, 2014

Fukushima rice farmers seeking restoration of land suffer setback

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/features/news/20141105p2a00m0na017000c.html

Three farmers from Fukushima Prefecture, who are demanding that their farmland be restored to the same conditions existing prior to the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, were told by the nuclear damage claim dispute resolution center that their claim was not covered by the existing settlement agreement, it has been learned.

Center representatives apparently told the farmers during the out-of-court settlement hearing, which was conducted via the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process, "We do not accept claims with which the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) will not agree."

The Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Nuclear Damage Compensation, which supervises the center, has presented a "guideline" for items to be subject to compensation. A manual published by the center for survivors of the March 2011 disaster, however, states that "individual circumstances (above and beyond the guidelines) will also be taken into account."

The three farmers are Hiroyuki Suzuki, 64, from the village of Otama, Eiji Watanabe, 65, from the city of Nihonmatsu, and Toshikazu Takeda, 64, from the town of Inawashiro. All are fulltime farmers, and grow rice and other crops on plots of land that are between 9 and 40 hectares in size. They all also utilize special cultivation procedures calling for strict limits on the amount of pesticides and chemical fertilizers to be used, and ship their rice to customers all over the country with whom they have signed direct contracts.

"We have been trying to produce the best rice in all of Japan," Suzuki commented.

Suzuki's farm is about 60 kilometers from the nuclear power plant, and measurements conducted on Dec. 1, 2011 revealed that there were 16,200 becquerels of radioactive cesium for every kilogram of soil on his land.

Watanabe's farm, meanwhile, which is similarly located some 60 kilometers away from the nuclear power plant, was shown to have 6,090 becquerels per kilogram of soil on Aug. 2, 2011, while Takeda's field, located some 80 kilometers from the plant, had 1,450 becquerels per kilogram on Jan. 26, 2012.

While all of the rice grown on the three farms contained cesium below the government-set maximum level of 100 becquerels per kilogram, Takeda reports that "Many of my 300 customers started canceling their contracts, and at one point, I had only about 100."

The three farmers submitted their ADR claim to the nuclear damage claim dispute resolution center in April 2012. They sought financial compensation for shrinking revenues due to harmful rumors, as well as additional funds in the amount of roughly 3 billion yen to restore their respective farmlands to their original condition.

While the process of reversal tillage (whereby topsoil is replaced by soil lying further underground) results in air radiation dosages being lowered, it does not remove radioactive substances from the farmland. And because the removal of the top layer of soil would not be accompanied by an addition of new soil, the farmers requested that the soil be replaced.

The farmers based their claims upon the cost of replacing the soil on farmland downstream on the Jinzu River in Toyama Prefecture, at around 46.7 million yen per hectare of land, after contamination resulted in the "itai itai" ("it hurts, it hurts") disease.

TEPCO denied the Fukushima farmers' claim via a written response in May 2012. At the first oral hearing held in October of the same year, a lawyer serving as a mediator for the nuclear damage claim dispute resolution center made the comment that the case was not covered by the settlement agreement since the center did not handle cases to which TEPCO would not agree.

The settlement agreement that was presented in May 2013, however, only included the amount of money for reduced revenues. While the three farmers accepted it, they also decided to file a suit demanding that their farmlands be restored to their former condition.

Five additional farmers joined the initial three, for a total of eight plaintiffs, who brought the case on Oct. 14 of this year to the Koriyama branch of the Fukushima District Court. The farmers indicated that they were unable to arrive at a total compensation figure, but demanded that the levels of radioactive cesium be brought down to 50 becquerels or less per kilogram.

"The claim for reduced revenues was an attempt to seek compensation for past damages, but if the land is not restored to its prior condition, we will have to ask for more damages every year, which means that we have no future outlook," Suzuki said critically. "The center has no understanding at all about how agriculture works."

Meanwhile, a center spokesperson commented, "We cannot comment on individual cases."

November 05, 2014(Mainichi Japan)