About 1,700 people from various prefectures filed four separate lawsuits against Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government last March 11, exactly two years after the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The crisis, which is a long way from ending, has devastated local industries and agriculture and uprooted thousands of people, some of whom will perhaps never be able to return home. But the victims are banding together to seek redress, and the process is expected to be long.
For the plaintiffs, who recoil at the prospect of backbreaking litigation, just trying to estimate their losses and find the evidence to support their claims will be an arduous task, with no guarantee that any redress won will even come close to equaling their losses.