Court blames lack of local gov't plan for kids' death in 2011 tsunami

A high court ruled Thursday that the deaths of 23 elementary school pupils in tsunami following the March 2011 earthquake in northeastern Japan could have been prevented if the city of Ishinomaki and Miyagi Prefecture had updated a contingency plan.The Sendai High Court ordered the governmental authorities to pay around 1.4 billion yen ($13 million) in damages to the families of the pupils, raising the amount of compensation by about 10 million yen from a lower court ruling.The authorities "failed to fulfill their obligation to revamp a risk management manual in line with the realities of O…READ FULL ARTICLE