A district court has ruled there was no link between a 65-year-old man's suicide in 2012 in Fukushima Prefecture and the nuclear crisis stemming from the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The Fukushima District Court turned down a plea by the man's wife on Tuesday to reverse a decision by the city of Iwaki, also in Fukushima Prefecture, that rejected linking his death to the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The man suffered from depression before committing suicide in May 2012.
The municipal government refused to pay condolence money to the family and rejected his wife's appeal against the decision.
His wife filed a lawsuit against the decision, arguing that his depression worsened due to his temporary evacuation from Iwaki amid the nuclear crisis and environmental changes including water outages after his return to Iwaki, leading to the suicide.
Presiding Judge Naoyuki Shiomi said he could not conclude there was a link between the disaster and the suicide.
A Cabinet Office official said he had never heard of a case in which such a municipal decision had been reversed.