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TOKYO, Oct. 7 (AP) A United Nations human rights expert on Friday urged the Japanese government to provide more support for evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, including housing, jobs and other needs, whether they were forced to flee or not.
Cecilia Jimenez-Damary concluded an investigation into the human rights situation of evacuees, saying Japan has enough laws to protect internally displaced people.
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These include a nuclear disaster compensation law that requires nuclear power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings to cover damages and other government-led revitalization and reconstruction plans.
But she said they were not being used effectively to address the vulnerabilities of evacuees.
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“These laws should not be just laws on the books, they should be implemented,” she said. “Unfortunately, because they are not fully implemented, that partly explains the surge in lawsuits against TEPCO and the government.”
Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melted after a major earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, destroyed cooling systems and released so much radiation that at one point more than 160,000 people were displaced.
Some 30,000 people remain displaced in and around Fukushima.
Thousands have filed about 30 lawsuits seeking compensation from the government and TEPCO for the loss of livelihoods and communities from the disaster.
The Supreme Court rejected four lawsuits in July, saying the government could not be held responsible because even measures could not prevent the damage from the tsunami that hit the factories.
Jimenez-Damary said evacuees were treated unequally, depending on whether they were forced to leave the exclusion zone or voluntarily.
Voluntary evacuees were seen as leaving unnecessarily and were excluded from TEPCO compensation and many other government support measures.
“Therefore, in practice, mandatory and voluntary evacuations should be declassified, especially with regard to access to support and assistance,” she said, adding that such discrimination “has no justification under international law.”
She said she was very concerned about the 2017 termination of housing support for voluntary evacuees from Fukushima, which led to the prefectural government filing a lawsuit against people who remained in government employee dormitories despite being ordered to leave.
UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Jimenez Damari met with Japanese officials, experts, human rights groups and evacuees in Tokyo, Fukushima, Kyoto and Hiroshima during his visit to Japan from 26 September to 7 October .
Her preliminary report is expected early next week, with a full report due in June 2023.
She acknowledged the efforts of central and local governments to address the vulnerabilities of evacuees, but said: “I want to stress that there must be improvement.”
Unemployment among working-age evacuees is more than 20 percent, well above the national average of 3 percent, she said.
Jimenez-Damary also noted “consistent effects on radiation exposure, especially for children who are now young adults,” as well as other anxieties experienced by evacuees, expressing considerable concern.
Seven people in Fukushima who were children at the time of the disaster and later developed thyroid cancer have filed a lawsuit seeking more than 600 million yen ($4 million) in damages from TEPCO and the government.
A survey of approximately 380,000 residents aged 18 or younger at the time of the disaster showed that more than 290 were diagnosed with or suspected of having thyroid cancer.
Their lawyers say the rate of 77 per 100,000 is significantly higher than the usual 1-2 per million.
Government officials and experts say Fukushima’s high rates are in many cases due to overdiagnosis, which can lead to unnecessary treatment. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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