A court on Wednesday ordered the Tochigi Prefectural Government and a high school athletic federation to pay ¥290 million ($2 million) in damages to the families of five people killed in an avalanche during a mountaineering course in 2017.
More than 40 people were caught in the avalanche near a ski resort in the town of Nasu on March 27, 2017, resulting in the deaths of seven students and a teacher from a high school who were there for a mountaineering class.
Three instructors responsible for delivering the course were also defendants in the lawsuit, which sought ¥385 million, but the Utsunomiya District Court dismissed the claims against them.