However, the ruling by the Chiba district court, east of Tokyo, did not find the government liable for compensation, in contrast to a March ruling in another court that ordered both the government and Tepco to pay compensation to a separate group of evacuees. Tepco is facing mounting legal claims over the disaster, with about 12,000 former Fukushima residents filing about 30 similar class action lawsuits seeking compensation, media reports said. Tepco was ordered to pay a total of 376 million yen ($3.36 million) for 42 of the evacuees, Kyodo and Jiji reported. Tepco on Friday said it would review the contents of the ruling before making a response. Tepco has long been criticized for ignoring the threat posed by natural disasters to the Fukushima plant and both the company and government were lambasted for their handling of the crisis.

Source: bd News24 September 22, 2017 06:56 UTC