A Japanese high court on Friday ordered the government and the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to pay damages totaling 278 million yen ($2.63 million) to 43 people who had to evacuate their hometowns as a result of the 2011 nuclear crisis.

The Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court decision that dismissed the state's responsibility over the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Of the total amount of damages, the court ordered the state to cover 135 million yen together with Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., with the rest shouldered by the utility alone.

Presiding Judge Yukio Shiraishi said it was "extremely unreasonable" for the government not to use its regulatory power to force the operator widely known as TEPCO to take preventive measures against the tsunami that triggered the nuclear accident.

It was the third high court ruling among 30 similar lawsuits filed across the country. The previous two decisions were divided as to the government's responsibility.

In September last year, the Sendai High Court ordered both the state and the utility company to pay damages. But in January, the Tokyo High Court deemed the government was not responsible for the nuclear crisis in a suit filed by plaintiffs who fled to Gunma Prefecture, eastern Japan, and elsewhere.

In a lawsuit filed with the Chiba District Court, 45 people collectively sought around 2.8 billion yen in damages from the government and the plant operator after they were forced to flee Fukushima Prefecture to Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo.

In 2017, the district court told TEPCO to pay a total of 376 million yen to 42 of the evacuees, but cleared the state of liability, prompting the plaintiffs to appeal the decision.

The focal point of the lower court case was whether the government and utility were able to foresee the huge tsunami that hit the seaside plant on March 11, 2011, and take preventive measures beforehand based on the government's long-term earthquake assessment that was made public in 2002.

The Chiba court ruled that both the state and TEPCO could have predicted the tsunami, but the accident may have been unavoidable even if preventive steps had been taken.

In contrast to Friday's ruling, the district court ruled the government's failure to exercise regulatory power to force TEPCO to take preventive measures was "not unreasonable."

==Kyodo

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