TOKYO — More than seven years after a devastating earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan acknowledged for the first time this week that a worker died from cancer after being exposed to radiation.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said the man, who was not identified, had worked mostly at the Fukushima Daiichi plant over 28 years and had died of lung cancer.

Three years ago the government awarded workers’ compensation to a man who developed leukemia while working on the Fukushima cleanup, but this week represented the first acknowledgment that exposure to radiation at the site caused a death. The government has acknowledged that three other Fukushima workers developed leukemia and thyroid cancer after working on the plant cleanup. About 5,000 workers labor at the site daily.

The ministry said the man who died worked for a subcontractor to Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant’s operator. He was in his 50s, and his lung cancer was diagnosed in 2016. His family did not wish his precise date of death to be released, according to the health ministry.