The Sendai District Court on Thursday ordered a city in Miyagi Prefecture to pay about ¥26.5 million ($235,000) in damages to the family of a 9-year-old girl who died in the 2011 tsunami disaster, citing improper guidance by her school.
The girl, who was in the third year of public elementary school in Higashimatsushima initially evacuated to the school gymnasium but returned to her home in the coastal area with the help of her classmate's parents, where she was engulfed by the tsunami.
In handing down the ruling, which is believed to be the first of its kind among a series of tsunami-related lawsuits, presiding Judge Hiroshi Oshima said, "The school principal was able to predict that she could be hit by tsunami because she had to pass through a projected flood-hazard area on her way home."