Teens with thyroid cancer file lawsuit against Fukushima nuclear plant

Six young Japanese men filed a class-action lawsuit against the Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday alleging a link between their thyroid cancer and their exposure to radiation after the March 2011 disaster.

The plaintiffs, aged between 17 and 27, were minors living in the Fukushima region when a powerful earthquake in northeastern Japan triggered a massive tsunami that caused the nuclear disaster.

His lawyers went Thursday to a Tokyo court around which dozens of supporters gathered with his cause to launch this collective action, the first of its kind initiated by the inhabitants of that area.

In total, they claim compensation of 616 million yen (5.4 million dollars) from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the plant, the group’s lawyer, Kenichi Ido, told AFP.

Japanese authorities do not acknowledge that there is a link between exposure to radiation from Fukushima and the occurrence of thyroid cancer.

A UN report published last year concluded that, a decade after the nuclear disaster, “no dire effects on the health of the inhabitants had been documented”.

The rise in thyroid cancer cases among children exposed to radiation could be due to better diagnoses, the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation said.

But lawyers for the young men say that none of the cancer cases among the group is hereditary and that it is very likely that the disease was caused by their exposure to radiation.

“Some plaintiffs are finding it difficult to advance to higher education and find jobs, and have even given up on their dreams for the future,” Ido said.

fear to sue

Pursuing this lawsuit “has taken us ten years because we were afraid of being discriminated against” if we raised our voices, one of the plaintiffs told a news conference.

“I was a girl when they told me I had cancer and I had no money for court costs,” she added. Through tears, the young woman recalled the day she learned her diagnosis: “They told me clearly that there was no link” with the accident.

The plaintiffs were between the ages of six and 16 at the time of the nuclear accident and were diagnosed with thyroid cancer between 2012 and 2018.

Four underwent a total ablation of this gland and will have to follow hormonal treatment all their lives, said the lawyer Ido. The other two had partial thyroid ablation.

On March 11, 2011, a strong earthquake triggered a gigantic tsunami that caused the cores of the three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi plant to melt, releasing significant amounts of radiation into the air that was later deposited in the ground and water.

The event left some 18,500 dead or missing, most because of the tsunami, and was the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, after which large numbers of thyroid cancer cases were detected.

As of June 2021, the Fukushima department has detected 266 cases, or suspects, of childhood thyroid cancer.

“When the lawsuit comes, we will address it sincerely after carefully reading the details,” TEPCO spokesman Takahiro Yamato told AFP. “We continue to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by the accident to the population,” he added. (I)