Unforeseeable Accidents from the Point of View of the Legal System

Abstract

The legal system regulating nuclear power generation in Japan had never taken into account the possibility of an accident as severe as the Fukushima accident. There were no countermeasures in place to respond to such an accident, which left people and agencies in confusion in a time of great need. By delaying the provisioning of well-considered countermeasures, Japan has not been able to adopt them properly and in a timely fashion. Even if there had been such proper countermeasures in place, the manner in which the response occurred after the accident made it hard for authorities to gain the trust of citizens. Agencies that regulate power companies and ensure the safety of nuclear power generation are part of the same governmental organisations that promote nuclear power. Therefore, the regulatory organisations had no other choice but to be passive in creating appropriate regulations on nuclear power. The disaster prevention drill that had been held before the accident was of no help in evacuations during this nuclear accident, as only small-scale accidents had been considered in the drill. Evacuation standards and food safety standards were put in place only after the Fukushima accident; simultaneously, the processing of radioactive waste was placed outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Environment. The fact that there were no specific standards for compensation increased the burden and anxiety of victims. It is critical to learn the lessons of Fukushima and create specific legal disaster countermeasures based on the assumption that a severe accident can and will occur again sometime in the future.