The Washington Post reports that despite the huge damage wrought by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident last year, victims have filed a relatively small number of compensation suits.

The U.S. daily says the accident, which contaminated the land and the sea and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and jobless, has turned up just 20 suits.

The Post explained that most Japanese victims are reluctant to go to court due to a national mindset of a distaste for confrontation and a "stunted judicial system that doesn’t allow for class-action cases or punitive damages."

It continued that the victims are seeking to receive compensations directly from the government or plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Corporation. It said the power corporation has paid an average of 24-thousand dollars in compensation to each victim.