The Kobe District Court on Friday acquitted all four central and local government officials accused of failing to take safety measures at a man-made beach in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, where a 5-year-old girl died in a sinkhole in 2001.
The court rejected the argument that the defendants were able to foresee the cave-in in the sand that killed Miho Kingetsu, even though there had been frequent sand collapses before the accident.
The four had pleaded not guilty. They said they could not predict the danger of cave-ins and claimed they were not responsible for safety management at the beach.