Citizens' groups are preparing to ask the government to enact a law to ban exports of mercury, the substance that caused Minamata disease and caused a major environmental disaster in the 1950s and 1960s.
The groups include one in Tokyo's Koto Ward named Citizens Against Chemicals Pollution. They are concerned about the serious damage mercury might inflict on people and ecosystems where the element is exported.
Japan still exports mercury, even though the European Union and the United States have halted mercury exports.