8 referred to prosecutors over 2012 fatal tunnel collapse

half a million US$ per person for negligence by a large company here killing 9 people....pretty pathetic

With the revenue they receive through over priced expressways, that is chump change.

smithinjapan

Certainly not “Only in Japan”. Cmon, have you ever been to a 3rd world country?

In at least 65% of the planet you won’t get a dime from large companies.

But loose bolts and skipping checks, and not even bothering to build scaffolding to do work...

These guys are hopefully gunna have to answer for that. It should be more than a couple grumpy old men’s decision on whether to tighten bolts on a tunnel roof!

man how will 50million yen help those families survive, especially if the main wage earner was killed. compensation should mean enough money for the family so they dont have to worry about paying the mortgage putting kids through college paying car payment for the life of the person that was killed. so if the average wage in Japan is say 4million yen times how many working years that person had left in their lives and thats just a start then add the mental trauma/suffering your looking at least 3~4 times as much. Id say 200~300million yen per family is a good starting point. my life insurance / home loan insurance is worth more than what these families are getting and Im still alive!!

Only in Japan. Not a person charged. Nothing. Just throw a tiny percent of the massive profits. TIJ.

Profits over people as ever at j inc.

A pal of mine saw the crushed cars in a nearby holding area after incident, said they were squashed down to the number plates. That's no way to die in Japan, the families deserve massive compensation even if nobody goes to prison.

@smith,

Am I missing something here because I didn't see the charges dropped. They were referred to the prosecutors. What are you basing your comment on? The only thing I can think of is that you are confused between the civil and criminal trials.

Only in Japan. Not a person charged. Nothing. Just throw a tiny percent of the massive profits. TIJ.

Yumster1000: They have been ordered to pay fines, that is all. Are you HONESTLY going to tell me that the cases that have been referred to prosecutors will result in anything more than suspended sentences AT BEST?

I'm not following you. They were not ordered to pay fines, the court/the judgment resulted in DAMAGES. It is a different legal conclusion than what you are referring to. Also, I can't say much regarding how the prosecutors will proceed against the defendants given that I don't have all the facts unlike you. I will say that it will be an interesting case to see if they can find the executives criminally negligible for this case. It's hard to say without knowing all the evidence.

Given your track record of consistently being proven incorrect on your opinions, based solely on your gut feelings of how Japan "is" rather than on credible sources, I wouldn't be surprised if you were wrong once again.

Also, YOU are the one who mentioned that "not a person charged" which was not stated in the article. Then, you talk about suspended sentences AT BEST which you get when a defendant IS CHARGED with a crime (aka guilty). It's so blatantly obvious that you have no idea what you are talking about except to be spouting things like "only in Japan."

Oh, is this another case of a Japanese corporation falsifying safety reports resulting in death? Wow! Shock me not! I remember this case well. It was near the start of the end for Japanese corporate integrity. It's quite ironic that, they started to include classes in ethics and morals in high schools around the same time this happened. I think they should have focussed these classes on the previous two generations.

Mark my words. If someone does not goto jail over there is a major problem.

smithinjapan

No worries, Im always rambling on this website. Have a nice weekend.

SmithinJapan

Come on!

Remember Deepwater Horizon, 2010?

Big fine, 11 dead. Did anyone go to jail from BP for that disaster that also killed sea life and caused a lot of environmental damage?

Big Fat No!

Last I checked America is a first world country, and so is the U.K.

smithinjapanNov

Only in Japan. 

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20171130_25/

thepersoniamnow: "Certainly not “Only in Japan”. Cmon, have you ever been to a 3rd world country?"

Hahaha... I knew that reply was going to come. Sorry, but I was equating Japan with developed, first-world countries. If you want to lump Japan in with third-world, underdeveloped nations where this occurs all the time as well, then yes, Japan is at home.

Yumster1000: They have been ordered to pay fines, that is all. Are you HONESTLY going to tell me that the cases that have been referred to prosecutors will result in anything more than suspended sentences AT BEST?

Problem with a system based on paternity.

Israel got a maternal system, everything is based on the mother. Reason you can be sure of the mother but not of the father. Granted no longer applicable today as we got DNA, etc tests now.