TEPCO settles suit over suicide of Fukushima dairy farmer

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. has agreed to make a payment to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a dairy farmer who committed suicide after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, the family's lawyers said Tuesday.

The settlement was reached at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday. The exact sum was not disclosed, though the family had been seeking around 128 million yen ($1 million) in damages.

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is likely to pay tens of millions of yen to the family of Shigekiyo Kanno, who died aged 54. But TEPCO has rejected the family's request for an apology in the settlement document, the lawyers said.

The lawyers said they agreed to settle the case because TEPCO "can be seen to have acknowledged the causal connection" between the suicide and the nuclear disaster, and because the settlement payment reached a level acceptable to the family.

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