The central and Kumamoto Prefectural governments announced Thursday they would offer financial assistance to about 3,000 Minamata disease sufferers who have not yet received any help to pay for their medical treatment, the Environment Ministry said.
The step is part of an aid package unveiled Thursday for victims of the mercury-poisoning disease that broke out in the Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, area in the 1950s and 1960s.
The two governments came up with the package after the Supreme Court ruled in October they were responsible for the spread of the disease after January 1960.