[…]
The Yokohama district court ordered the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to pay 419.6 million yen (USD3.8 million) to 152 local residents, a court spokeswoman told AFP.
The verdict was the fifth time the government has been ruled liable for the disaster in eastern Japan, the world’s most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Presiding Judge Ken Nakadaira said the government and TEPCO “could have avoided the accident if they had taken measures” against the tsunami that sparked the disaster, according to public broadcaster NHK.
In March last year, a court in Kyoto, western Japan, ruled both the government and TEPCO were responsible and ordered them to pay 110 million yen to 110 residents.
However, in a separate case in September 2017 in Chiba near Tokyo, the court ruled that only the operator was liable.
Read more at Japan govt, Fukushima operator told to pay over nuclear disaster
