|
Saturday 20, November, 2004 13:30 - 16:00, International Conference Hall Plenary Session 5 Compensation for Damages due to Asbestos Chairs: Akira Morita and Satomi_Usijima Akira Morita Lawyer, Kanagawa University Graduate Division, School of Law, Japan ABSTRACT In 1970s and 80s workers who suffered asbestosis after years of manufacturing asbestos products or spraying asbestos in the construction sites filed damage suits against the asbestos product manufacturers or related companies. Among them were Heiwa Sekimen case,a lawsuit sued by a group of plaintiffs against Heiwa Sekimen Co., Ltd. and several individual cases brought against Nihon Asubesuto (Asbestos). All of these cases were settled with conciliation. The Yokosuka Sumitomo (Heavy Industries, Ltd.) asbestosis lawsuit was filed in 1988. This is the first action by shipyard workers in Japan. Through the legal fight, they sought to question the responsibility of the shipbuilding company, their employer for the health hazards caused by the use of the material in the shipyard in Yokosuka. The initiative was followed by a series of legal actions. A bereaved family of a dead thermal power plants worker filed a suit against the Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc. Thereafter workers who had worked in the U.S. Naval Base in Yokosuka and bereaved families collectively sued against the Japanese Government as an employer and in Nagasaki workers and bereaved families mounted legal fights to the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Recently, some lawsuits were filed in the shipbuilding fields again, and the case about the asbestos removal in a nursery school was brought into court. Such various types of asbestos litigations are increasing nationally, not to say rapidly. |