Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Ten evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture filed an appeal to the Tokyo District Court on Monday concerning a lower court decision on alleged human rights abuses committed against them by the Fukushima Prefectural Government.

Lawyer Kenichi Ido pleaded to the court on behalf of the evacuees that they not be pressured to leave their present accommodations and move to an unsafe location.

He raised the possibility of them being forced to live in Fukushima Prefecture and cited “dangers” still posed by living in the Fukushima area.

The evacuees are demanding compensation of 10 million yen.

During her visit in September 2022, Special Rapporteur Cecilia Damary Jimenez urged the Japanese authorities to acknowledge that under the UN declaration of human rights, refugees should be free to move and be able to choose their place of relocation.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers accuse Fukushima Prefecture of having disclosed confidential financial information to relatives of nuclear refugees and said the prefecture had doubled rents to encourage the evacuees to leave their present accommodation. This, they say, goes against the spirit of the Japanese Constitution which gives the people the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”