11:10 - 12:30, No.2 Conference Room
Workshop D
Asbestos Litigation in Japan
Chairs: Takeshi Furukawai and Barry Castleman
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Akio Shiraishi
Ehime Occupational Safety and Health Center, Japan
ABSTRACT:
The impressive ratios are before us; 696F1 and 11,871F1.
These ratios are respectively the ratio of the number of class actions filed from power plant workers in federal courts in the United States in 1991 to that of equivalent in Japan, and the ratio of the number of participants in the class actions in the US to the equivalent in Japan. These data do not indicate that there are few asbestos victims in Japan, but that very few asbestos victims have been provided with relief in comparison with the population of potential asbestos victims in Japan, and that the magnitude and extensiveness of the asbestos hazards are poorly recognized.
This malignant mesothelioma case suggests many problems in the asbestos-related diseases in Japan.
| Why did the victim's bereaved family have to file a damage lawsuit in the court instead of applying for compensation under the existing workers' accident compensation insurance system?
|Why was the corporation reluctant to recognize itself to be responsible for his asbestos-caused death?
|Why were there few victims in power plants workers?
The hazardousness of asbestos was well established. The criteria to be recognized as occupational disease is clearly defined and the compensation system for asbestos victims is also established. Patients of malignant mesothelioma are diagnosed in university hospitals or other specialized institutions, and case reports followed by results of dissections are reported in medical societies. Although, the workers' accident compensation insurance system has not been informed to the victims. As the result, the bereaved families have had no option but going to court because the legal period for applying to compensation had been already passed.
The subcontracting system, which characterizes the Japanese industrial structure, forces subcontractors and sub-sub contractors to accept severe contracts under inferior conditions and to abandon the occupational accidents and diseases outwards.
As the asbestos victim in this case was a regular employee, it was very important case related to power stations all over the country.