TEPCO: Compensation in hotspot area

February 3, 2015

TEPCO agrees to pay compensation for property damage in radiation 'hotspot' area

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150203p2a00m0na008000c.html

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, has agreed to pay some 420 million yen in compensation for property damage to residents who live in a radiation "hotspot" area, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

Fifty-two residents of 10 households living in parts of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, which is designated as a recommended special evacuation zone due to radiation hotspots, and another nine people of one household in a neighboring district sought compensation from TEPCO over property damage via an alternative dispute resolution process.

Attorneys representing the residents told the Mainichi Shimbun on Feb. 2 that TEPCO has agreed to pay some 420 million yen, a large portion of the compensation payment recommended by the government-backed dispute resolution center.

However, as the utility refused to pay compensation to the one household which is located outside the recommended evacuation zone, the plaintiffs will not accept the payment until TEPCO agrees to pay everyone who filed the claim.

The dispute resolution center presented a settlement proposal over property damage in the recommended evacuation zones to TEPCO in December last year. It was the first case for the center to accept such a claim filed by a group of residents in those areas.

TEPCO rejected the damage claim filed by the one household (about 10 million yen in compensation), saying that the utility will not handle dispute resolution requests from residents outside the radiation hotspot areas in the same manner as those filed by people living in the recommended evacuation zones.