The Fukushima District Court ruled Tuesday that Tokyo Electric Power Co. was responsible for a woman's suicide following the March 2011 nuclear disaster, ordering the utility to pay ¥49 million in damages in a landmark ruling that could set a precedent for other claims against the utility.

It was the first ruling on a lawsuit in which compensation has been sought over a suicide linked to the disaster that created serious radiation contamination. Some 125,000 Fukushima residents continue to live as evacuees.

Mikio Watanabe's civil suit claimed that the plant operator was to blame for the July 2011 death of his 58-year-old wife, Hamako, who doused herself in kerosene and set herself on fire after falling into deep depression.