Overview

• The Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings acquitting former TEPCO executives Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto of professional negligence related to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
• The court determined the magnitude of the tsunami that caused the disaster was unpredictable, making the executives not criminally liable for the resulting deaths during evacuations.
• This decision concludes the only criminal trial stemming from the Fukushima accident, which followed a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region.
• The ruling dismissed appeals from a civil prosecution panel that argued the disaster could have been prevented with adequate safety measures based on earlier tsunami risk assessments.
• In a separate civil case in 2022, the same executives were ordered to pay a record-breaking ¥13.3 trillion in damages, though this amount is largely symbolic and unlikely to be paid.