Four and a half years after the Fukushima disaster started, and as the country tentatively restarts nuclear power elsewhere, legal challenges against the crippled plant's operator are mounting.
They include a judge's forced disclosure of a 2008 internal document prepared for managers at Tokyo Electric Power Co. warning of a need for precautions against an unprecedented nuclear catastrophe.
Also, class actions against Tepco and the government now have more plaintiffs than any previous Japanese contamination suit and, overruling reluctant prosecutors, criminal charges have been leveled against former Tepco executives for failing to take measures to prevent the 2011 meltdowns and explosions.