ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the developments leading to the crisis at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, the legal system as it relates to nuclear disaster, and the government response to the calamity. It examines the various legal questions presented by the nuclear disaster along with the lackluster government effort to address them. This examination will show that there were serious failures of law in the preparation for possible nuclear disaster, and that the response to nuclear disaster shows that there were serious failures of politics behind the failures of law. The chapter explores how the legal system was prepared for all the legal questions raised during the Fukushima accident and how the Japanese government responded to them. The nuclear meltdown in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant caused serious radiation contamination to spread to neighboring communities. The Japanese government had to restrict the marketing, consumption, and cultivation of agricultural products in the nearby communities.
