Machinery maker Kubota Corp. will apologize and compensate the next of kin of residents near its former plant in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, who died of asbestos-linked diseases and to people suffering from such illnesses, but it will not admit a causal relationship between its plant's use of the substance and the ailments, company sources said Friday.
Kubota President Daisuke Hatakake will meet for the first time Sunday with asbestos poisoning patients and with relatives of those who died in Amagasaki to announce the compensation plan, the sources said.
Kubota has already begun payments of 2 million yen per sufferer of asbestos-related illness and the same amount to the next of kin of the deceased as condolence money.
By calling the money compensation, Kubota wants to take responsibility for asbestos-related health problems near the plant, they said. The amount has not been determined.
But Kubota is unlikely to admit to any relationship between the asbestos at the plant and mesothelioma found among residents nearby, they said.