Here’s a good article on Minamata disease. It is a lengthy academic article by the late Tsurumi Kazuko that you can either read on the web or download in pdf format to read later.
For those of you who are not yet familiar with the issue, Minamata is a city in Kumamoto Prefecture, near Kagoshima. Mercury poisoning, most of which occurred more than 50 years ago, is the central issue. Despite the passage of time, however, it continues to be a contemporary issue because the victims have had to continue to fight for compensation and assistance. There have been some important developments this year but few news articles in English. If I can, I would like to try to fill in some of those gaps later.
– Kirk