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Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Monday that it has started sending out forms to Fukushima residents to file claims for damages resulting from the evacuation of areas surrounding its stricken Daiichi nuclear power plant. TEPCO said it aims to make its first payments in October.
TEPCO officials told a news conference in Tokyo that the initial round of compensation claims are to cover damages from March 11 up to Aug 31. The company also announced that subsequent claims are to be taken quarterly and that the first round of compensation will not cover property damage.
According to the government, about 80,000 people were evacuated from a 20-km radius around Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been leaking radiation since March 11.
Compensation will cover transportation (5,000 yen per person) and lodging expenses (8,000 yen per night for accommodation) for anyone forced to relocate, as well as mental suffering. Additional amounts will be paid for loss of income on a case-by-case basis, TEPCO said, adding that those amounts will be in line with government guidelines issued earlier in August.
As part of the compensation plans, the government will pitch in an initial 2 trillion yen in the form of special government bonds to help TEPCO.
The Diet in early August, passed a law to create a state-backed entity that would help TEPCO pay the compensation bill for the disaster, estimated to reach tens of billions of yen. The government has agreed to help TEPCO compensate evacuees and other victims, conceding in the law that the state is partly responsible because it has promoted nuclear energy for decades.
© Japan Today
22 Comments
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some14some
Application forms in....how many languages? Ofcourse Japanese only.
Iken?
Well yeah. It's Japan. If you can't speak the language, get someone to do it for you. If you have nobody like this to turn to, you shouldn't be there anyway.
sillygirl
6 months on - forms :(
Asagao
So how can they deliver the forms to the victims houses inside the 20 km exclusion zone, if it is illegal to enter the zone. Or will some poor post office worker have to ride his bicycle through the radiation to "get the job done"? I guess they will probably set a deadline for the application form that is delivered to houses inside the zone, so that nobody can receive them, and all unclaimed monies could be set aside for this years TEPCO boninkai parties.
cactusJack
Only took 6 months to print the forms...I wonder how long to process them...hmmm...
gogogo
So the tax payers are paying for it... meaning the people getting the money are actually paying for it as well.
soldave
gogogo - Never let facts come in the way of a good story!
globalwatcher
Here is a heart felt advice for you:
Do not sign unless you understand all exclusions and disclaimers on the paper. The 60 pages long documents are telling me there a lot of holes.
Maria
Holy crap, but filling that out is adding to the tragedy. Just imagine what some people have to write: I lost my house, my business, all my personl possessions, my land, my mother and my 2 children.
fds
the japanese government's legislative and executive branches of the japanese government have failed the people miserably. the only branch left that can possibly help the people is the judicial branch. tepco knew that a tsunami of the size that occurred was possible. tepco did nothing, i.e. essentially gambled and lost. now they should pay all cost of clean up and damages. 5000 for transportation and 8000 for lodging is a joke. everyone should sue tepco for all damages arising as a result of the radioactive contamination and if tepco can't pay it should be put into bankruptcy and operated under a trustee to insure that the monopoly profits earned are being paid to compensate the damages and not being used to pay the inflated salaries or used for an "advertising" budget larger than sharp's!
Asagao
@. Totally agree. Plus legislation is make sure this doesn't happen again.
sakurala
Wow! 60 pages! That seems a little excessive, but I guess it will cover a variety of sitations ranging from family, business, tourism and such. Hopefully those poor souls don't need to fill out every page and hanko every box. And after the book is completed, maybe they should think of photocopying it and have a lawyer check it over just to make sure that nothing is missing or filled in incoreectly that may disqualify them from receiving their payment.
ItsMe
Certainly don't want to support Tepco, but realistically there are some legal arguments that will certainly be made of the legality of the claims, who can claim, who can't claim, etc. Consider this: If the earthquake destroyed your home, and killed some members of your family, where would you go? Whose fault would it be? If this same thing happend within the 20 km zone, then whose fault is it? Not making an argument either way, just saying that these things will be complicated--- and yes, there will be people trying to cheat the system... There always is...
nath
6 months for preparing forms? Must be hella thick and filled with legal loopholes for TEPCO to dance their way out of paying anything.
OnlyAGaijin
156 Pages - What a Bureaucratic Pathetic Joke! - Like many other thing here "It has to be complicated"
Also Can someone tell me how the Elderley are going to filling in this BOOK!
Balefire
TEPCO has apparently proposed to the government that it will raise electricity rates 10 - 15% for three years starting next April. If approved, the monopoly's customers will be paying for its mismanagement. If, as seems likely, the government provides subsidies as well, taxpayers across the nation will be contributing, and TEPCO customers will be contributing twice, in taxes and in power bills.