I don’t mean to rain on the parade of the changing of the imperial guard, but, as this is a page about Kumamoto, I thought I’d describe the connection between the new Imperial Empress, Masako, and Minamata. Masako is the granddaughter of Yutaka Egashira (in the center of the photo) who was president of Chisso from 1964 to 1971 and then Chairman of the Board of Directors until May of 1973.
Mr. Egashira was not with the company when it began to dump lethal mercury in Minamata Bay. He had been called in to help put the company back on its feet after the pollution came to light:
“Yutaka Egashira, who while working for the Industrial Bank of Japan was assigned to take over management of one of its creditors the Chisso Corporation to prevent it from financial collapse.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masako,_Crown_Princess_of_Japan
Mr. Egashira did not start the discharge of mercury but it continued though the first four years of his administration. Chisso did not stop the production process that caused the pollution until 1968.
Then, at an infamous stockholder’s meeting held in November of 1970, Mr. Egashira is credited with hiring yakuza (mobsters) to intimidate the Minamata disease patients and their supporters who had purchased single shares of stock in order to gain the right to attend the shareholders meeting.
“Chisso president later chairman Yutaka Egashira (Later maternal grandfather of Masako, Crown Princess of Japan) used yakuza in order to threaten and silence patients and their supporters.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chisso
While Mr. Egashira was Chairman of the Board, Chisso hired thugs to brutally beat Eugene Smith for the crime of publicizing what Chisso had been up to:
“Chisso had American photographer and photo-journalist W. Eugene Smith beaten by yakuza goons after Smith published a highly regarded photo-essay showing the caustic injuries and birth defects Chisso had caused the Minamata population.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chisso
“On July 7, 1972, during the course of a protest against the Chisso Corporation, a chemical company in Minamata that had been dumping industrial waste into the water, Mr. Smith was severely beaten by six men. As result of his injuries, he is now almost entirely blind.” https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/09/archives/blinded-in-beating-photographer-still-presses-a-crusade-colleagues.html
I haven’t seen any reference to Mr. Egashira having ordered Eugene Smith’s beating, but given his previous hiring of thugs for the shareholder’s meeting and his continued high station in the company, it seems likely that he knew about and approved the plan.
All of this is more-or-less common knowledge and so it was considered when the prospect of Masako becoming the Crown Princess through her marriage to Prince Naruhito came up.
“Egashira’s link to Chisso was initially considered a sticking point for Masako’s marriage to Naruhito, but top palace officials eventually approved it after concluding Egashira was sent to Chisso from a now-defunct Industrial Bank of Japan to reconstruct the financially strapped chemical firm in the 1960s. They said Egashira was not responsible for the pollution scandal.”
https://www.denverpost.com/2006/09/25/obituaries-in-the-news-14/
True, he didn’t start the pollution and it was under his administration that the pollution finally ended. OK. But, as I’ve just described, there were a few other things that happened under his administration as well.
– Kirk (Curmudgeon in Chief)
P.S. I don’t have anything against Empress Masako. Grandchildren can’t control grandparents. But, I think the history of Minamata disease should be known. This is one example of how deep into the heart of Japanese society the Chisso rot extended.