The Supreme Court has upheld lower court rulings that acquitted two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings over the 2011 nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
The top court's Second Petty Bench on Wednesday supported the lower courts' decisions that the accident was unpredictable and decided to dismiss an appeal by lawyers acting as prosecutors. The not-guilty verdict rejecting the plaintiffs' call for the former executives to be held criminally responsible will be finalized 14 years after the country's worst nuclear accident. The plant was damaged by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.
Former Executive Vice Presidents Ichiro Takekuro, 78, and Sakae Muto, 74, had been accused of business negligence resulting in death and injury.
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