In a high-profile case that raised fresh concerns about elderly drivers, a 92-year-old former top bureaucrat was ordered to pay ¥140 million ($933,000) in damages on Friday over a 2019 car crash in Tokyo that left a woman and her young daughter dead.
At the start of the civil trial, Kozo Iizuka, former chief of the now-defunct Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, had acknowledged his responsibility to pay damages, so the focus of the proceedings was on how much he would have to pay.
Takuya Matsunaga, who lost his wife and daughter in the incident, was, along with his father-in-law and seven other bereaved family members, seeking ¥170 million in damages.