Around 50 people prayed for the victims of the Minamata mercury-poisoning disease at a memorial ceremony in Kyushu on Sunday, marking the 60th anniversary of Japan's official recognition of the illness linked to industrial pollution.
The anniversary was observed in the Kumamoto city of Minamata by victims and their families, while a memorial service hosted annually by the city government and usually attended by the environment minister and Kumamoto governor was postponed in the wake of powerful earthquakes that jolted the prefecture in mid-April.
As of late March, 2,117 people in both Kumamoto and neighboring Kagoshima prefectures were waiting for official recognition that they have Minamata disease, one of Japan's worst outbreaks of pollution-related illness, while a series of damages suits have been filed nationwide.