West Japan Railway Co. and USJ Co., operator of the Universal Studios Japan theme park, apologized at separate shareholders' meetings Wednesday over scandals and instances of misconduct.
Referring to JR West losing a compensation suit over a train crash in Shiga Prefecture in 1991 that left 42 people dead, Masayuki Sakata, senior managing director of JR West, said: "There were many regrettable points. We will make our utmost efforts to ensure safety from now on."
JR West said late last year it would not appeal an Osaka High Court decision that ordered it and local railway firm SKR to pay a total of about 510 million yen in compensation to the families of nine of the 42 who were killed, confirming the plaintiffs' victory in the case.
The railway also apologized for an accident in Osaka in November in which an ambulance worker was hit and killed by a train and another was injured as they attempted to save a 14-year-old boy who had been struck and injured by an earlier train.