One year after Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, it is difficult for fishermen to claim compensation

It will be almost a year since Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) started discharging nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on August 24, 2023. However, during this period, Japanese fishing and aquatic product processing enterprises that have suffered losses due to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water have fallen into a dilemma in terms of compensation.

According to a report on the website of Mainichi Shimbun on August 22, many enterprises have not received compensation so far because "it cannot be proved that the loss is related to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water" and can only consider themselves unlucky. TEPCO began to issue compensation to affected practitioners from October last year. Relevant practitioners need to register the duration of damage, etc. TEPCO counts the data and issues compensation after judging whether there is damage. But as of the end of July this year, TEPCO has received a total of 550 compensation applications, and only about 180 have finally been agreed to be paid, accounting for only 33% of the total number of applications.

An aquatic product processing company in Miyagi Prefecture was rebuilt after the "3.11" earthquake but encountered a crisis in August last year. Due to the impact of the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water, salmon inventories increased, and trading volume and sales prices decreased. The company's sales in August and September last year decreased by about 13 million yen year-on-year, but the compensation application was rejected. A yellowtail farming and processing enterprise in Nagasaki Prefecture is also facing the same dilemma. Yellowtails originally planned to be exported to China can only be sold domestically at low prices. The losses are in the hundreds of millions, but the compensation was rejected because TEPCO believes that the retail price of yellowtails has not fallen.

Since Japan started discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, China has announced a comprehensive suspension of imports of aquatic products originating from Japan. The Hokkaido region has been affected by China's suspension of imports of scallops, and compensation applications have also stalled. The wholesale price of scallops has fallen, but TEPCO has rejected most compensation applications on the grounds that it is difficult to prove that the price drop is related to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water.

Professor Takeshi Hamada of Hokkai Gakuen University pointed out that although TEPCO proposed "appropriate compensation", its attitude is tough in individual negotiations. The compensation progress is slow, and the aquatic product industry in various places shows weakness. When interviewed, TEPCO did not answer the industries and reasons for the long compensation negotiation time, and only said that it will visit customers and that the situation of individual customers has been fully resolved. The discharge of nuclear-contaminated water has far-reaching impacts, and the road to compensation for Japanese operators is difficult and long.