Japanese citizens have demanded a halt to the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean, asking for the government to revoke the permission for the controversial program at the first public hearing of a lawsuit in Fukushima on March 4.

The hearing of the lawsuit, filed by 363 Japanese fishery stakeholders and ordinary citizens nationwide against the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the government over the ocean discharge, was held at the Fukushima District Court in Fukushima city.

On Aug 24 last year, TEPCO started releasing nuclear-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

Tsuguo Hirota, a lawyer for the plaintiffs’ group, said the discharge constitutes a deliberate “double harm” to the victims of the nuclear disaster, following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011, and is by no means permissible.

“In August 2015, the government promised the Fukushima prefecture that it would not proceed with ocean releases without the consent of stakeholders,” Hirota said.

“For the past eight years, news on this matter has been widely discussed. Nevertheless, the government and TEPCO have blatantly ignored such promises and have calmly released contaminated water into the sea. For the citizens, it might be said that the government of this country is a government that can lie without hesitation,” Hirota added.

He stressed that what is being released into the sea near Fukushima this time is not just tritium-contaminated water but also includes a wide variety of radioactive substances. Among them, there are clear concerns about harm to the human body.