Two of five men who developed bladder cancer while working at a chemical factory manufacturing dyes and pigments are demanding that the government recognize their illness as job-related.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Friday, the pair called on their employer — Tokyo-based Mitsuboshi Chemical — to make urgent improvements in conditions at the plant in Fukui Prefecture.
Employees Kenji Takayama and Yasuhiro Tanaka, both 56, have each worked at the plant for nearly 20 years. They say lousy working conditions — including a lack of ventilation that routinely makes workers sick — could have caused the cancer.