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The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that acquitted two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. of criminal negligence over the 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, concluding that they could not have foreseen the massive tsunami that triggered the accident.
The top court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by court-appointed lawyers designated to act as prosecutors, who sought the annulment of a Tokyo High Court ruling that had acquitted the defendants of charges of professional negligence resulting in death.
As a result, the acquittal of former TEPCO executive vice presidents Ichiro Takekuro, 78, and Sakae Muto, 74, has become final.
All three justices on the Second Petty Bench of the Supreme Court agreed on the ruling.
The prosecution’s case against former TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, who also faced mandatory indictment, was dismissed as he died in October last year.
The three defendants had authority over nuclear power plants when the accident happened in March 2011.
In 2016, the three were indicted for having failed to take measures against a massive tsunami although they could have predicted it. The indictment alleged that their negligence resulted in the deaths of 44 people, including patients who were evacuated from Futaba Hospital in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.
In September 2019, the three men were acquitted by the Tokyo District Court of charges of professional negligence resulting in death. The Tokyo High Court also acquitted them in January 2023.
The main point of contention in the trial was whether the two could have predicted the tsunami.
The specific focus was on the reliability of a long-term assessment released by the government in 2002 that presented the possibility of massive earthquakes off Fukushima Prefecture and other places, as well as of a prediction made by a TEPCO subsidiary in 2008, based on the assessment, that a tsunami of up to 15.7 meters could hit the nuclear power plant.
The top court concluded that the long-term assessment did not provide evidence that would be generally accepted and that it was not considered highly reliable by a government agency. Presiding Justice Kazumi Okamura said the high court ruling that the assessment did not establish the possibility of tsunami in a realistic manner cannot be considered irrational.
