An international treaty to protect human health and the environment from mercury pollution entered into force Wednesday, paving the way for regulation of the manufacture, trading, use and disposal of the chemical. The Minamata Convention on Mercury, taking its name from the city in Kumamoto ...
A survivor of Minamata mercury poisoning disease will visit Switzerland next month to attend the first conference of signatory states to an international treaty to prevent mercury pollution, one of the organizers of her trip said Wednesday. Shinobu Sakamoto, 61, who suffered mercury poisoning while ...
An international anti-mercury pollution treaty will now go into force on Aug. 16 as the necessary number of countries have approved it, the secretariat of the pact said Thursday. Romania has joined the Minamata Convention on Mercury, becoming the 50th country to do so and ...
A ceremony was held on Monday in the city of Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, to mark the 61st anniversary of the official recognition of Minamata disease, a mercury poisoning caused by polluted wastewater. About 700 people, including those who still suffer symptoms, families of victims, and ...
The perils of mercury-poisoning are laid bare by victims of the Niigata Minamata disease who recount lingering social stigma and the importance of protecting the environment in a new book by a Tokyo publisher. "Memories of Aga, Voices from Aga," compiled by students of Rikkyo ...
A play featuring a doctor involved in the identification of Minamata disease will open in a Tokyo theater on Friday, marking the 60th anniversary of the official recognition of the mercury-poisoning disease. The main character in "To a Quiet Ocean — Minamata" is modeled on ...
The Niigata Municipal Government is appealing a court ruling that recognized late-onset Minamata disease, which is caused by mercury poisoning from industrial pollution. The Niigata District Court ruled May 30 that clear symptoms of the disease can appear long after the intake of methyl mercury ...
A district court has ordered the Niigata Municipal Government to officially recognize seven people as sufferers of the Minamata mercury-poisoning disease. But the Niigata District Court also rejected the claims of two of the nine plaintiffs fighting for recognition over one of the country's worst ...
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 ...
Having experienced the dreadful results of mercury poisoning, Japan has a responsibility to help other countries in their efforts to prevent such pollution.
A head of the news section at a regional newspaper has been punished with unpaid, indefinite suspension after slandering a lawyer and other people on a social network service website, the newspaper revealed Friday. Hideki Sakamoto, a 53-year-old former news department chief of Niigata Nippo's ...
Japan's government has restarted the process of officially recognizing more sufferers of Minamata disease — discovered decades ago to be the result of eating mercury-contaminated fish — under a new guideline that the Environment Agency adopted in March.
