Acquittal upheld for ex-TEPCO execs over Fukushima nuclear crisis

Well that's a surprise.

They should all be in prison for all the damage they have done. The nuclear disaster was a manmade one, admitted by TEPCO.

Never thought that would happen!

One law for them and one law for everyone else.

Meanwhile we have to pay out tons of hard-earned cash to solve the TEPCO mess at Tokai Mura while the guilty execs are all playing golf and getting massages.

Please wake up decent Japanese people.

The 'self-entitled' are taking you down big time.

I suppose this is the kind of case that falls under the 1% in an otherwise 99% conviction rate legal system. There's a government research estimating 15 meter waves and the court just conveniently swats that aside.

Japan Inc coalesces over any threat like a self-preserving amoeba. Wake up all you hear-no-evils. The amoeba is not on your side.

Nuclear power generation was Japan Government (LDP) Policy since the 1960s. They are not going to prosecute their 'own people' for doing their job, no matter how incompetent, corrupt and dirty it was, and despite overwhelming evidence that it could have been predicted.

T I J - This Is Japan. At least the LDP's Japan.

So the stones uphill from the plant warning against tsunami were just decorative rocks.

As the historical records show, rulings handed down from Japanese courts confirm that for profit-takers capitalism means "never having to say you're sorry", gifted with get-out-of-jail free cards, accompanied by an obligatory shakedown of the tax-payers. "And laughing all the way to the bank they lived happily ever after", just like in a fairy-tale, innit?

tepco did NOT follow the safety recommendation made by government inspectors way before 2011, recommendations were made about building higher Tsunami walls and moving power generators to higher grounds but none was done. This caused of the flooding and the lose of power to the reactors cooling system including the water pumps and their generators.

No surprise at all. This is Japan. Ya know....?

They should all be in prison for all the damage they have done.

they could at least do volunteer cleanup of the out of control nuclear disaster that they controlled.

Welcome to the criminal justice system.

What a tide of disbelief and anger above at these poor innocent executives!

All of which is totally justified.

Sometimes the Japanese legal system leaves me speechless.

Expecting else from the old boys in club is the very definition of optimistic.

The Goverment wont take responsability.

https://www.courthousenews.com/japan-top-court-govt-not-responsible-for-fukushima-disaster/

TEPCO neither.

Who is gonna compensate the evacuees, restore the destruction, and clean the radioactive waste?

As long as they bowed I am sure it is ok…….NOT

the judges and the defendants are probably all out at a posh restaurant tonight laughing at the poor peasants they have duped yet again!

"The Tokyo High Court decision followed a Tokyo District Court ruling in 2019 that found former TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 82, along with Ichiro Takekuro, 76, and Sakae Muto, 72, both former vice presidents, could not have predicted the massive tsunami that crippled the power plant and led to core meltdowns."

Oh, sure, they couldn't have predicted the tsunami, but they damn well could have predicted what would happen when one hit, and THAT is why it is, in the words of the people, "unbelievable" that they are getting off Scott-free yet again. Well, it's entirely believable, and THAT is also very predictable, but you know what I mean. It is well known they lied about knowing they would build the plant on an existing and active fault line. They also had no measures in place against such forces, despite them having happened in the past in that area. Oh, they knew. They did not know when, I'm sure, or they would have retired shortly before, but we all know they knew what could and would happen. Shame on these judges and the system here.

The verdict was met with anger and disbelief from a crowd of people, including those affected by the disaster, who had been waiting outside the courthouse for the ruling.

‘The Japan (Establishment) that can say no,’ a book title for the entitled!

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/06/tepco-will-someone-turn-lights/352260/

“In 2000, Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese-American engineer who had worked at the Fukushima reactor one site, blew the whistle on TEPCO’s decades of cover-ups and dangerous practices in a letter to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). As an inspector for GE which helped build the plant, he stated: “I was performing a visual inspection on the steam dryer (a critical part of the nuclear reactor) at the Fukushima site Unit One for TEPCO. The dryer was inspected and found cracked to the condition to where it was required to be replaced by a new one at an extensive cost. Then, the most damning evidence: “We submitted (video) tapes to TEPCO for METI, edited with visual cracking intentionally omitted per TEPCO request. Sugaoka refused to comply with the request to edit the tapes himself, noting that this was a criminal offense. “I wasn’t willing to lie. That made me a troublemaker. Lying was standard practice at TEPCO, and maybe for most of the nuclear industry. “

Tsunehisa Katsumata 82

Ichiro Takekuro 76

Sakae Muto 72

230 years old.

Cashed out x stashed away. Welcome to the Future

And the money set aside for repairing the damage that could have been avoided if the above three hadn't ignored the warnings is going to be use by Kishida to buy US missiles to protect Japan from the evil Chinese and North Koreans.

Thanks LDP!

Not sure about this. My instinct says, "Guilty"

Accountability, in this instance, just seems to be a silly word.

Having personally experienced a large earthquake, I have zero comprehension why there are nuclear power plants in Japan at all!

Massive offshore wind potential in Japan ...and tidal ...

But Japan needs nuclear ....to waste our tax and screw the plebs.

I see, in thus case there were no foreigners to blame, so it has to be blameless

Those three executives pay very well, so they are not going to see any jail time and are a lot smarter. They are some of the last of Shinzo Abe's "old guard." They were in bed with the LDP before the 90s and maybe even the 80s. They are better insulated than most current Japanese politician.

So I guess it's absolutely no one's fault, right?

Not the government for failing to calculate the risk (oh wait, they did) or to manage the Nuclear industry as a controlling authority.

It's not TEPCO's fault in spite of decades of cut corners, ignored whistle-blowers and hushed-up reports.

It's not the director's fault. They didn't know anything, right? I guess total ignorance of facts and circumstances is irrelevant to senior managers.

It must be the fault of the people living there for believing that ANYONE gave a damn about them.

Days like today make one ponder the Rule of Law and wonder why the average person would have faith in equal protection under the Law in Japan.