Former TEPCO chairman active during Fukushima nuclear disaster dies at 84 while on trial for liability

TOKYO — Former president of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings who led the rescue operation after the power plant meltdown Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and was accused of being responsible for failing to prevent the disaster as top management, he died and his trials are still ongoing. He was 84 years old.

Tsunehisa Katsumata died on October 21, TEPCO said on Thursday, without providing further details, including the cause of his death.

Katsumata was chairman of TEPCO when the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi earthquake and tsunami struck at a magnitude of 9.0, followed by triple levels. He led the rescue operations after the then president of the company stepped down due to health problems and served in this position until mid-2012.

He later became one of the defendants in high-profile criminal and civil trials demanding TEPCO management be held accountable for their alleged failure to predict a massive earthquake and tsunami and to take preventive measures.

Nearly 6,000 Fukushima residents filed a criminal complaint in 2012 accusing several former TEPCO executives, including Katsumata, of professional negligence in the deaths of more than 40 elderly patients during or after forced evacuations following the meltdown, which released large amounts of radiation into the surroundings.

After prosecutors dropped the case, Katsumata and two other former executives were indicted in 2016 as part of a citizens’ investigation and ordered to stand trial in the only criminal case related to the Fukushima disaster.

Katsumata and two co-defendants pleaded not guilty, saying it was impossible to predict a tsunami and acquitted in judgments of district and higher courts. The case is currently pending before the Supreme Court.

Katsumata also faced a civil lawsuit brought by a group of TEPCO shareholders, and it did ordered by the Tokyo District Court to pay compensation in 2022 exceeding 13 trillion yen ($85 trillion) along with three other former executives. The case is pending before the Tokyo High Court.

Katsumata, who was TEPCO’s president from 2002 to 2008, was also responsible for damage control and promoting corporate governance following the company’s earlier data concealment scandal. He joined TEPCO in 1963.

As head of a powerful utility company, Katsumata also held key positions in business organizations such as Keidanren and had a major influence on Japanese politics and industry.

Today, more than 13 years after the accident, the Fukushima Daiichi plant is being decommissioned – a process that has taken decades and is still in its early stages.

In recent months, TEPCO has been trying to recover the first small amount of leftover molten fuel from one of the three damaged reactors using remotely controlled robot T. If successful, the return of the sample will be a milestone that could contribute to further research into molten fuel analysis and the development of the technology needed to remove the 880 tons of molten fuel residue that remains in the three reactors.