Pierre Boutier

TOKYO: After 13 years of legal action, workers exposed to asbestos are winning their lawsuits against the Japanese state and companies that failed to keep workers safe.

At the High Court, the lawyers for the plaintiffs from the Tokyo, Kanagawa, Kyoto and Osaka regions unfurled rolls of paper containing the four judgments of the court. The ruling ordered the state and the companies to create a compensation fund for asbestos patients and to apologize to the victims.

In front of the court, some of the plaintiffs cheered the ruling.

A woman who worked in the cleaning industry said she contracted lung cancer from exposure after more than 30 years working in an environment that contained asbestos.

Many branches of the construction union came to support the plaintiffs and more than a hundred people gathered outside the court in Tokyo.

Between 1995 and 2004, Japan banned the use of certain components of asbestos, which can cause lung cancer.

In 2006, a Japanese Ministry of Labor and Welfare report indicated that more than 15,000 people could have died from exposure to asbestos.