, a woman's voice cut through the silence from the gallery:"Unbelievable!"
"In these eight-and-a-half years, so many people were forced to leave their houses ... and they remain displaced and unable to decide where to live," she said.READ: Japan court acquits ex-TEPCO executives over Fukushima disaster Parts of the region remain uninhabitable, and may be so forever. Even where decontamination has been completed and evacuation orders lifted, many residents have been reluctant to return.
The path to the criminal trial was fraught, with prosecutors twice declining to bring the case to court, citing insufficient evidence and a slim chance of conviction.In 2015, a judicial review panel composed of ordinary citizens ruled that the three executives should face trial however, forcing prosecutors to proceed with the case.