Tokyo: A French woman has sued public broadcaster Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) for dismissing her after she left Japan in response to a French government warning issued during the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Emmanuelle Bodin, 55, who had engaged in translation and radio work, said in a complaint filed with the Tokyo District Court that she had told her boss that she would return to work on March 30, 2011, but received a termination letter on March 22.
Two days after the earthquake-tsunami disaster triggered the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant on March 11 that year, the French government advised its citizens to leave the Tokyo area.
Bodin, who is demanding her dismissal be rescinded and damages be paid, had worked at NHK for over 20 years as a contract staffer, renewing her contract every year, according to the complaint.
She said in a news conference no other employee in the French language section who left Tokyo at the time was fired.
NHK said the termination of her contract was not made in an unfair manner but refrained from elaborating on reasons for the dismissal.
(KYODO)
PTI
