TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese high court on Friday overturned a ruling ordering former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. to pay the utility damages for failing to prevent the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The Tokyo High Court determined it was difficult for TEPCO's management at the time to foresee the massive tsunami that caused the disaster, overturning the 2022 court decision ordering the former executives to pay around 13 trillion yen ($90 billion) in compensation.

The focal point of the trial was whether the management's inaction regarding tsunami countermeasures was acceptable after a TEPCO unit estimated in 2008 that a tsunami of up to 15.7 meters could hit the plant based on the government's long-term earthquake assessment made public in 2002.

Presiding Judge Toshikazu Kino said the government's assessment did not provide a sufficient basis for the utility to swiftly conduct construction work to protect against a huge tsunami.

The massive tsunami was "not foreseeable," Kino said, judging it was unavoidable for the former executives to not have a sense of urgency based on information available at that time.

Hiroyuki Kawai, lawyer for the shareholders seeking the damages, criticized the ruling as "fundamentally flawed," expressing his intention to appeal the latest decision.

The plaintiffs had sought about 23 trillion yen in damages in the lawsuit.

The ruling came after the Tokyo District Court found in July 2022 the former executives liable for compensation after the combined impact of a massive earthquake and tsunami on the plant in northeastern Japan in March 2011 caused one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.

The district court ruled the government's assessment was "scientifically credible" and a massive tsunami hitting the plant could have been foreseen. Both the defendants and shareholders had appealed the ruling.

The district court found the late former Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, former President Masataka Shimizu, and former Vice Presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro liable for damages. Katsumata's lawsuit was taken over by his heir.

The acquittals of Takekuro and Muto in a criminal suit were finalized in March. Charges against Katsumata were dismissed after his death last October.