TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's top court has rejected an appeal seeking criminal charges against three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. over their alleged failure to prevent the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The decision, dated Wednesday, upholds lower court rulings that the executives could not have foreseen the massive tsunami that caused the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, acquitting Ichiro Takekuro, 78, and Sakae Muto, 74, both former vice presidents of the company.

Charges against former TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata were dismissed after his death last October at the age of 84. Nearly 14 years after the disaster, in which the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors suffered core meltdowns, the criminal trial has concluded without anyone being held accountable.

The trial examined whether the former executives should have acted to avert the accident, as a government assessment had projected that waves up to 15.7 meters could hit the Fukushima plant, with TEPCO being informed of the estimate in 2008.

Japan's Supreme Court, however, found that the assessment was not reliable enough to make the executives aware of the possibility of a tsunami of that scale striking the nuclear power plant, upholding the previous rulings in 2019 and 2023.

The three former executives were charged in 2016 with professional negligence resulting in death and injury and were indicted for failing to implement tsunami countermeasures.