Court orders TEPCO to compensate family of Fukushima woman who committed suicide

FUKUSHIMA--The Fukushima District Court ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. to pay 49 million yen ($471,600) in compensation to the family of a woman who committed suicide by setting herself ablaze after being forced to evacuate her home.

The ruling was the first to recognize the correlation between the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and a suicide by an evacuee, according to the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit was filed by her husband, Mikio Watanabe, and three family members in May 2012, demanding that the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant pay 91 million yen in damages for the death of Hamako, 58, who killed herself in July 2011 in the yard of the family home.

The Watanabes lived in the Yamakiya district of Kawamata, Fukushima Prefecture, until the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 triggered the nuclear disaster at the nearby TEPCO plant. They evacuated to Fukushima city in June 2011.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that "the nuclear disaster abruptly took away Yamakiya's lush nature and (the victim's) ties with her warmhearted neighbors, resulting in the depression that caused her suicide."

After they evacuated from their home, Hamako lost weight and suffered from insomnia after failing to adjust to her new life living in an apartment in the city.

She also was despondent over losing her job at a farm in the Yamakiya district, which was forced to close after the nuclear disaster.

Watanabe said his wife wanted to return to Yamakiya, and that she committed suicide by self-immolation while home on a temporary visit.

One of the key arguments in the trial was whether Hamako's death was directly caused by the crisis at the nuclear plant.

"(Hamako's) personal vulnerability also influenced her own death," TEPCO officials argued during the trial.