A court ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. to pay 670 million yen ($6 million) to a golf course operator as compensation for revenue losses caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Tokyo-based Kashima Sogyo, which runs the Kashima Country Club in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, had sought 5.8 billion yen from TEPCO on grounds the triple meltdown at the utility’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in 2011 resulted in a sharp drop in customers.
In her Oct. 11 ruling, Presiding Judge Yuko Mizuno of the Tokyo District Court said the nuclear disaster rendered part of the golf course unusable, causing financial hardship for Kashima Sogyo.
The judge calculated the company’s losses by comparing the club’s revenues prior to and after the accident.
Kashima Country Club was forced to close for three months in 2011 because the area it lies within, between 20 and 30 kilometers from the nuclear plant, was designated as an "emergency evacuation preparation zone."
Since reopening, only a limited section of the golf course has been available, and the number of customers has decreased.
The judge, however, dismissed the plaintiff’s demand that TEPCO decontaminate the golf course.
“The contents and method of decontamination have yet to be specified and therefore the demand is inappropriate,” she said.