Idiosyncratic Japan: 85-Year-Old Wife of 91-Year-Old Man Killed by Train Ordered by Court to Pay 7.2 Million Yen in Damages to Train Operator

I do hope it is indeed "idiosyncratic" to Japan and nowhere else, but I could be negatively surprised.

I thought it was a joke of some kind when I saw tweets with the link to the article, like the Japanese version of Onion News Network (which is less funny these days as the reality becomes more hilarious by the day). It wasn't.

The focus of people in Japan was on the fact that the remaining family members - 85-year-old wife and her son - was deemed responsible at all times for the man who suffered from severe dementia.

My focus was, what the hell did the train operator - JR Tokai - sue the family for?

Here's how Mr. Tetsu Ueda, chief justice of the Nagoya district court in Aichi Prefecture decided, according to Nikkei Shinbun (8/10/2013):

The court orders the wife of the man and their eldest son to pay full 7,200,000 yen to JR Tokai for damages demanded by JR Tokai for train delay stemming from the fatal accident in which the man, 91 years old at the time of the accident, entered the railroad track and was hit by a train in December 2007.

The man had been diagnosed with the severe dementia that required care at all times.

The man slipped outside when the wife, then 85 years old, was not looking. Judge Ueda decided that the wife was negligent in performing her duties as caregiver. Judge Ueda also accused the eldest son who didn't live with the parents for not providing the appropriate measures to prevent roaming.

The family argued that it was impossible for the then-85-year-old wife to monitor her husband all the time. But Judge Ueda said the family could have hired a helper, and said "The prerequisite for the care of the man was that a caregiver keep an eye on him at all times. Therefore the family was negligent."


認知症の男性（当時91）が線路内に立ち入り電車と接触した死亡事故で、家族らの安全対策が不十分だったとして、ＪＲ東海が遺族らに列車が遅れたことに関する損害賠償を求めた訴訟の判決で、名古屋地裁（上田哲裁判長）は９日、男性の妻と長男に請求全額にあたる約720万円を支払うよう命じた。

　判決によると、男性は2007年12月、愛知県大府市のＪＲ共和駅の線路に入り、東海道本線の列車と衝突して死亡。男性は同年の２月に「常に介護が必要」とされる「認知症高齢者自立度４」と診断されていた。

　上田裁判長は、同居していた妻が目を離した隙に男性が外出し、事故が発生したとして「妻には見守りを怠った過失がある」と認定。別居している長男についても「事実上の監督者」とし、「徘徊（はいかい）を防止する適切な措置を講じていなかった」とした。

　男性の家族らは、妻は事故当時85歳で、常時監視することが不可能だったなどと主張。しかし上田裁判長は、介護ヘルパーを依頼するなどの措置をとらなかったと指摘。「男性の介護体制は、介護者が常に目を離さないことが前提となっており、過失の責任は免れない」とした。

And so they will be made to pay 7.2 million yen to a large train operator because the man had dementia and roamed into the railroad track and hit by a train, causing some delay in train schedule and supposedly some loss of revenue for the operator.

The same Japanese justice system is NOT going to prosecute anyone from TEPCO's former top management and DPJ's politicians under the Kan administration over the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. But it has no problem indicting the now 91-year-old woman and ordering her to pay damages arising from her negligence, of not taking care of her husband.

The system goes after easier targets, and that's unfortunately universal.

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