This is a follow-up to William’s post about the May 1st commemoration of the official “discovery” of Minamata disease, a report submitted to the Minamata City health office by Dr. HOSOKAWA Hajime on May 1, 1956.
Legal battles over who should be recognized as a Minamata disease patient and be therefore is entitled to assistance continue to this day. How could such legal battles go on so long? One answer is that, after trying to ignore the issue, the government has taken a series of half measures, each of which helped some but left others without assistance. Some of those left out have sued the government. Victories have led others to sue in a very long series of court battles.
One example of government inaction (hoping that the problem will just go away eventually) is its refusal to conduct a scientific survey of the people living around Minamata to measure the extent of the effects of mercury in the population:
“It is also vital to conduct health surveys of local residents as provided by the special measures law. No such surveys have yet been carried out.”
– Kirk
