The relatives of 23 elementary school students killed in the March 2011 tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, filed a lawsuit Monday blaming the city and prefecture for the school's failure to evacuate them to higher ground.
In the lawsuit, filed at the Sendai District Court, the plaintiffs are demanding that the municipal and prefectural governments jointly pay ¥100 million in damages for each victim.
At city-run Okawa Elementary School, 74 of the 108 students died or remain unaccounted for, and 10 of the 13 teachers and school officials died in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.