Minamata’s Fight for Justice:
How Japan’s Failed Debate and Response Sparked
Local and Global Change
Thesis
Beginning in the 1950s, thousands of residents of Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, suffered from a neurological disease caused by methylmercury pollution from a local Chisso Corporation factory. Government officials initially failed to protect citizens by denouncing corporate interests, forcing citizens to stir debate and self-advocate through protests, lawsuits, and other means. The tragedy prompted lasting national reforms and international diplomacy to successfully prevent chemical pollution.
Tamano Murano, a Minamata disease patient, has a seizure in Minamata City Hospital, 1960, Blind Magazine
Chisso Corporation's labor union protests the factory, 1962, Mainichi Shimbun
Closing plenary session of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, 2019, International Institute for Sustainable Development