FIRST FUKUSHIMA RADIATION DEATH CONFIRMED

TOKYO Japan has acknowledged for the first time that a worker at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami more than seven years ago, died from radiation exposure.

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck in March 2011, triggering a tsunami that killed some 18,000 people and the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry ruled on Friday that compensation should be paid to the family of the man in his 50s who died from lung cancer, an official told Reuters.

The ministry had previously ruled exposure to radiation caused the illnesses of four workers at Fukushima. This was the first death, the official said.