Chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company, responsible for Fukushima nuclear accident, dies at age 84

Chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company, responsible for Fukushima nuclear accident, dies at age 84


Refer Report


Tsunehisa Katsumata, former Chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company. AP Yonhap News

It was belatedly announced on the 31st that former Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, who was questioned as to his responsibility as Chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company during the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, had died. Age 84.

Mainichi Shimbun and other newspapers reported on this day that former Chairman Katsumata died on the 21st. After graduating from the Department of Economics at the University of Tokyo in 1963, he joined Tokyo Electric Power Company and became its chairman in 2008.

At work, he was nicknamed ‘Razor Blade’ because he was quick and decisive in getting things done. They are brothers with former Nippon Steel Vice President Takao Katsumata and former Marubeni Chairman Nobuo Katsumata, and are also called the ‘Katsumata Three Brothers’ in the business world.

While he was serving as chairman, he was responsible for handling the accident when an explosion occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. Afterwards, he stepped down from the position of chairman through the general shareholders’ meeting in June 2012.

He was indicted on charges of occupational manslaughter along with former Vice President Sakae Muto and other executives in connection with the Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion, but was later found not guilty. The victim’s lawyer said that Tokyo Electric Power Company made a prediction that a tsunami with a maximum height of 15.7m could hit the company in 2008 based on the earthquake prediction of the Japanese government’s Earthquake Research Promotion Headquarters, but management refused to take follow-up measures such as installing a seawall due to the cost burden. He claimed responsibility for the accident, saying he did not come forward. However, the court ruled that it would have been difficult for Tokyo Electric Power Company management at the time of the accident to predict that a tsunami exceeding 10 meters in height would occur, and it would have been difficult to determine whether it would be sufficient to stop the operation of the nuclear power plant.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that former Chairman Katsumata often repeated the phrase “the tsunami was unpredictable” whenever he was called as a witness before the National Assembly Accident Investigation Committee. Regarding the possibility of a core meltdown if the nuclear power plant is flooded by a tsunami, he responded, “I haven’t heard about it.”


However, the Tokyo District Court ruled in 2022 that four executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company at the time of the accident, including former Chairman Katsumata, were liable for civil compensation against Tokyo Electric Power Company.

Source: Korean