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TEPCO execs should face poverty over Fukushima, lawyer says

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Not gonna happen. The Old Boys Club in Japan take care of their own

7 ( +11 / -4 )

And while all this is going on the executives are all transferring their assets to other family members to make it seem that they are already in poverty.

The government needs to step in and freeze all their estates until the litigation is completed otherwise none of these idiots are going to lose a thing.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

In Japan? No chance.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Have to agree with horsey and smith....these boys know how to play hide and seek in their own backyard. And as long as the same people stay in power (j-government ) nothing will ever change.

S

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Finally someone doing the right thing

4 ( +4 / -0 )

It sounds like the right "Social Justice" thing to do, but the laws in Limited Liability Incorporation protect business from this sort of thing. If not, who would want to put their fortunes on the line for a new product that may have a fault? I am not saying that TEPCO should get off free, they need to compensate the people affected, and if there were criminal wrong doings then they need to be prosecuted, but to say we are coming after your personal income and assests is wrong, when you were doing your job (even though you may have been doing a crappy job).

If this were to happen, then you would have big companies with an army of lawyers passing the buck down to some lower leve manager to avoid paying and what you will get is more inefficiency from Japanese business than you do now. Just think, do you think any middle manager in a Japanese company will make a move that may cost him his assets, you will come up with Japan continuing to move "slow in the fast lane."

5 ( +5 / -0 )

If it's the civil case, personal speaking, there is a possibility to charge some penalties that some of TEPCO exec should pay. The point is whether the court can judge it as a individual case. Nevertheless, what's clear is that TEPCO execs could have predicted a huge tsunami that was occurred in 800's.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Yubaru: Very good points. I'll bet the money was long since transferred, but there is always a paper trail. Someone will track down the funds and expose these criminals. Yet, that trail will probably lead to government officials and banks making it quite hard to expose.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

In Japan, nothing can be resolved and no progress can be made without assigning personal responsibility

What? The driving force of this place seems to be the evasion of responsibility at all costs. 16 years working for Japanese companies, nobody has once had the guts to announce "I think...".

"It has been decided..." is as close as it gets.

Persdonal responsibility? Here? Do me a favour.

-6 ( +5 / -11 )

The severest sentence these geezers will ever be expected to serve will be a deep bow and some badly over-acted fake tears. Then off to their luxury homes, by way of the hostess bar, while the rest of Japan pays for their negligence.

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

i was expecting more of a japanese traditional way to redeem their honor

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Corporate Japan is not developed enough to do the right thing.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

AlphaapeMar. 27, 2012 - 08:20AM JST It sounds like the right "Social Justice" thing to do, but the laws in Limited Liability Incorporation protect business from this sort of thing. If not, who would want to put their fortunes on the line for a new product that may have a fault?

There are two flaws with your understanding of this situation:

Limited liability does not apply to gross neglegence - If it can be shown that the research showed a plausible risk (not with 20/20 hindsight, but rather in the opinion of other experts at the time) and was rejected then the concept of limited liability does not apply. For example if one receives a report from a senior engineer that the heater you're about to put on the market just before winter is likely to burst into flames and executives ignore the report because it is simply too expensive to recall and correct the flaw before winter sales start then this is a good example of neglegence and any resulting damage and injuries will be jointly and separately the company and the executives' liability. That's the law.

The Executives of TEPCO did not "put their fortunes on the line". They are employees of the company like anyone else. Executive does NOT necessarily equal majority stockholder or even a minority stockholder, and certainly does not equal the inventor in most cases. There are rare exceptions like Bill Gates who was both founder and CEO of Microsoft, however these situations are the exception rather than the rule. In TEPCO the executives are just employees, and employees who did not do their jobs correctly, and as such are undeserving of the hundres of millions of yen they made every year while neglecting to do their jobs.

Executives are not "magical" in any way, they're regular employees. CEOs are not Gods, they're employees. If a company or customer can sue a regular employee in their private capacity for damages relating to neglegence in the workplace then the same laws apply to CEOs and other executives.

Executives seems to have assumed the same place in the public consciousness that nobility occupied a thousand years ago, with many people under the delusion that the regular laws don't apply to these people. Snap out of it!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In TEPCO the executives are just employees, and employees who did not do their jobs correctly, and as such are undeserving of the hundres of millions of yen they made every year while neglecting to do their jobs.

@Frungy: Then why are they going to be held for a nuclear plant that was put in that location long before they got there. In your example of the faulty heater, I can see your point, but that doesn't apply to this situation. The plant was there when many of the ones at the top got to a position of authority. If anyone should be held responsible, it would be the governmental regulators who approved the location and site plans.

Not saying that Execs are "magical" in the least bit. They make mistakes. But these guys, incompetent as they may have been but not crimnal. Also, do these top execs really manage the day to day operations of the reactors, or where they just guys from different parts of the comapny who just rose to the top.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What a stupid thing for a lawyer to say.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

100% agree though like all the others, we know the old boys club will gather and protect their own. It is shameful that these fat cats are protected while others suffer because of their greed and lack morals.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Something needs to be done to all those involved at the top level over the last 40 years, from the people who approved the construction at that location to the ones who neglected to undertake recommended safety measures as recent as 2 years ago, if it includes former PMs down then so be it. Slam everyone involved this will make all of corporate japan stand up straight.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

As much as I agree with what this lawyer says, you can't sue the people running the company, you can only sue the company. The company could then sue the execs as in the Olympus case.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

“Warnings have to be issued that, if you make wrong decisions or do wrong, you must compensate with your own money,” Kawai told a press conference.

then by this same logic, shareholders made wrong decisions investing in nuke, and should also be paying for the thousands of people effected by tepco - which they own!!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Someone here said "Finally someone doing the right thing" ....WRONG! He's saying the right thing but he isn't doing it.

personal responsibility

Bwahahaha! Personal responsibility? The richest people on the planet didn't get rich using their own money. They got rich off the backs of others, mostly taxpayers.

The billionaire boys club of Japan is an organization replete with the elite of Japan. These guys are UNTOUCHABLE. Let me make it easy for you.

Just imagine a castle high up on a jagged hillside surrounded by a dark forrest filled with an assortment of monsters and beasts that all serve this master vampire that cannot be killed. These guys are age old vampires, long in the tooth, names changed over time to hide the trail of death that lead to their families success.

They cannot be unseated by a simple mob of peasants brandishing pitchforks and pick axes.

The only way you "Trade Places" with these guys is to destroy their castle. Stop Nuclear Energy!

The vampires will sit and bide their time. They know they killed too many with the Fukushima disaster. Oblivion is a safe place and that's where they will go. They will fade into memory and over time documents and notes will be lost. Small steps will be taken to overturn history.

It.s all part of the plan. History will repeat itself. Next time though the company will be run by their sons.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

what a dumb lawyer why warn them in advance.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sorry to bust some bubbles here, bit it is a stock held company. people who work for them are protected by that fact and their personal assets have nothing to do with it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is a step in the right direction but it must be taken further. TEPCO execs and all others responsible for the catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi (they were warned many many times) and the subsequent deceptions should be FORCED to work at the reactor site to do manual clean up.

Why should others have to work there while those responsible are away safe and sound in their homes eating food from foreign countries? It is time for the people of Japan to turn the tables and make a serious change. Why should the people have to suffer because of their greed, corruption and ignorance?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Nice gesture, but not gonna happen.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well, I think they should be living just above the poverty line in a prison cell, if for any other reason, living free in poverty is a virtual impossiblity. They should be in jail conferring with their lawyers until their trials begin. And after that, many should be permanent prison residents.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Corporations by law have a duty to put shareholders' interests above all others, and have no legal authority to serve any other interest. (Bakan 2004:36) They are amoral, they need to obey the law, but beyond that need to be as profitable as possible. Reduction of profitability leaves them vulnerable to lawsuits from shareholders! It is the market that determines how they operate, their business environment, sets the rules and regulates them.

In the case of TEPCO, the market, vis a vis the regulators, let the Japan down, by acceding to their every request, and failing to independently check them. They, the regulators, the elected politicians, the local elected government, local bureaucrats, the academics and the mass media were all bought off by the corporation known as TEPCO, as it sought to maximize profits. The collective guilt falls across a far wider swath than a handful of suits at TEPCO, who probably had no clue what the nuclear division was doing, and no interest in disturbing the status quo of massive profits.

There is a video on YouTube showing Chairman Haruki Madarame (aka Detarame or Liar) at a meeting of the Nuclear Safety Commission, rubber stamping the re-start of 2 reactors. He and fellow members refuse to even look at a member of the public asking a question, refuse to answer it, and finally close the meeting, leaving the question unanswered. Pure contempt for the people they are supposed to serve.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wouldn't be surprised at anything that happens, as the crises is ongoing (forever?). People are angry, to say the least.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I would hardy call this "social justice".

It's an action by a group of 42 very wealthy shareholders to try and claim losses.

It's been widely reported that one of the reasons that the Fukushima plant was unprepared for the events of the tsunami was because it had been subject to a cost-cutting drive under Tepco chief executive Masataka Shimizu. One of the effects of cost-cutting is to increase shareholder value.

To see this situation as "the people vs. Tepco" is incorrect. Rather than being "victims", as they are trying to portray themselves, I see the shareholders as being complicit in the meltdowns. If you make money from cost-cutting, you can't then start crying when a disaster happens due to the very same cuts that you profited from.

What I would call justice is suing the executives and giving the money to the real victims ; people who have lost their homes and businesses due to the radiation.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Well, I think they should be living just above the poverty line in a prison cell, if for any other reason, living free in poverty is a virtual impossiblity. They should be in jail conferring with their lawyers until their trials begin. And after that, many should be permanent prison residents.

And have them supported yet again by tax payers' money??

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Look at who the shareholders are and look at the litigation sum and you will see that this is Big Corporate Japan going after TEPCO. As shareholders they have the possibility to sue the execs for gross negligence and contrary to the first comments here I'm pretty sure they will succeed because this is Japan. More interesting though is the fact that they sue a company of which they themselves still hold a large part of shares. They surely don't want to cut their nose to spite their face, so this could only mean they are out for public money. It will be interesting to see how the government positions itself in this game.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Till you try to live in an actual prison.(not a holding facility).

Where you become a number, no talking aloud, all the food is "Hiya-Meshi"(cold food). Fights and punishments are also common. Want a bath/shower = twice a week

And if you are sick, good luck on getting treatment and even medication.

Prison don't compare to living on the bottom-line.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

It"me, confused. Are you saying it is worse than living in poverty because I think some would disagree. A guaranteed roof over you head, promise of food everyday, a shower twice a week... is more than what some poor folks get. And more than what these scum bags deserve.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

tmarie.

Way worse, people on poverty can apply for goverment aid, etc.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

It's me, why don't you go out and tell that to the homeless and listen to what they have to say about it.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

tmarire.

Maybe I did and I also know quiet a few homeless that came in from the street after government aid. One is the wife of my estate-agent now.

What I am saying is there are options, if they take them or not is no-ones fault/decision besides their own. Not an easy road to take government aid and many will go back to their former lifes.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Readers, please stop bickering. Focus your comments on the topic, not at each other.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

TIG March 16th 2012 - iChoose Hope Be The Change.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

And yet it is fine for Tepco to recruit homeless workers and have them exposed to dangerous levels of radiation?

Ahh the days when Japan had a code of honor are long gone methinks........

1 ( +1 / -0 )

And yet it is fine for Tepco to recruit homeless workers and have them exposed to dangerous levels of radiation?

This has been done globally and for decades.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Here's hoping that this lawyer can put his money where his mouth is. I would LOVE to see TEPCO management kicked to the curb.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This has been done globally and for decades.

It doesn't make it right.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

man, I think this might well be the first time the plainiff and the defendant might involve the very same person.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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