A computer systems developer admitted Friday that its dictionary software contains discriminatory words regarding Minamata disease sufferers, foreigners, and physically and mentally impaired people.
Tokyo-based NTT Advanced Technology Corp. (NTT-AT), a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., has received complaints about offensive references to Minamata disease, an illness caused by mercury contamination, found in the dictionary software.
The software also contains derogatory terms about the blind and mentally disabled, as well as Chinese people and those from communities that used to be discriminated against.
The software is used on the Web sites of both Diet chambers and more than 200 local assemblies. The terms are displayed when the system's synonym function is used.
The Kumamoto Prefectural Assembly, which uses the software on its Web site, has received protests from support groups for Minamata disease patients against the discriminatory words.
According to NTT-AT, it had failed to check the words recorded into the software and moves to delete inappropriate expressions related to Minamata disease are under way.
The firm has also suspended the use of the software on its own Web site. The dictionary software contains about 1.2 million words.