Empirical study of legislative history of nuclear damage compensation system: examination of Wagatsuma Sakae documents and Kato Ichiro documents

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26380012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fundamental law
• Research Institution: Dokkyo University
• Principal Investigator: KOYANAGI SHUNICHIRO 獨協大学, 法学部, 教授 (00153685)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 原子力損害賠償 / 無過失責任 / 公害 / 我妻榮 / 原子力委員会 / 星野英一 / 法制局

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The Section 3 of the Nuclear Compensation Act of Japan does not limit the amount of liability of nuclear operators. After the Fukushima accident, the Japanese Government is preparing a reform of the nuclear compensation regime. The main issue is whether the current system of the unlimited liability of nuclear operators should be maintained or not. To answer this question, it is important to clarify how the current system was established . Our method is a historical survey of legislative documents discovered by this study. Our finding is the conflicts among the Ministries at the time of formation of the regime in 1961. The Atomic Energy Commission of Japan proposed the limited liability system with mandatory governmental aid to nuclear operators. But, the Ministry of Finance raised strong opposition to the proposed system and the Cabinet Legislation Bureau considered the limitation of liability as inconsistent with the Constitution of Japan.

Free Research Field

基礎法学