Relatives of volcano victims sue Japan’s weather agency over alert

Family members of some victims of a 2014 volcanic eruption filed a 140 million yen (US$1.2 million) damages lawsuit on Wednesday, accusing the weather agency of failing to issue a proper volcanic alert for hikers.

The families of five victims said in the suit filed with the Nagano District Court’s Matsumoto Branch that the agency failed to raise the alert level from 1 to 2 and designate as off limits an area near the crater of Mount Ontake, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures, before the September 27, 2014 eruption.

It is rare that the focal point of a lawsuit in natural disaster prone Japan is the extent to which the Japan Meteorological Agency is responsible for forecasting volcanic eruptions.

It is the first lawsuit related to the eruption of the volcano, which killed 58 people and left five others missing, presumed dead, according to the plaintiffs. Many deaths resulted from the impact of falling rocks.

The plaintiffs also accused the government of Nagano Prefecture of having left two broken seismographs near the peak unrepaired, according to the lawsuit.