Japan’s Worst Pollution Disaster
MINAMATA DISEASE:　Mercury poisoning from industrial waste

For immediate release: 29 June 2009
Contact: Aileen Mioko Smith
Cell: +81-75-701-7223
(Press conference in Japanese at 16:00 today in Nagata-cho area. Location to be determined.)

Tokyo, Japan—-A delegation of wheelchair-bound congenital Minamata disease victims is arriving in Tokyo this morning seeking a meeting with Yukio Hatoyama and the Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) leadership in a last minute effort to halt passage of a Minamata disease bill which will have devastating effects on relief for victims.

It was reported in the media yesterday that Prime Minister Taro Aso considers passage of the Minamata bill to be one of the top priorities before dissolving the Lower House.

The Minamata victims’ delegation will be petitioning Diet members in Tokyo today and tomorrow. Poisoned from birth, the victims —many of them in serious condition– have paid their own way to come to Tokyo to lobby leading Diet members in both Upper and Lower Houses, the Minshuto, and Liberal Democratic party.

This so-called special-measures bill submitted to the Diet is supposed to “aid” uncertified sufferers of Minamata disease.

Minamata Disease is widely recognized as Japan’s worst industrial pollution disaster. In 2004, Japan’s Supreme Court found the government guilty of having caused and spread Minamata disease. At present over 30,000 victims are registered “hoken techo” recipients, not officially certified but recognized as living in the polluted area and qualifying for medical relief.

Prime Minister Taro Aso’s government is attempting to pass a bill into law that would enable the polluter, the Chisso Corporation, to escape the burden of further compensating victims by splitting the company into two entities, separating its profit-making branch from the rest of the company. The law would also nullify the designation of Minamata and surrounding areas as an area plagued with Minamata disease under the pollution-related health damages compensation law.

Victims are concerned that certified patients will not be guaranteed future payments, and that victims yet to be recognized will have no entity from which to seek relief. The bill includes no guarantee the government will pick up costs for compensation. A wide range of Minamata victims’ groups have been petitioning Diet members to stop the bill.

More than 6,000 people are currently waiting to be officially certified by administrative authorities as Minamata disease sufferers.

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Green Action is an environmental group based in Kyoto, Japan. It’s director, Aileen Mioko Smith is co-author with W. Eugene Smith of MINAMATA which was nominated for the National Book Award (1976).
For further information on Minamata disease: http://www.aileenarchive.or.jp/minamata_en/index.html