‘Minamata Mandala’: An unfinished battle for accountability
Documentary film director Kazuo Hara chronicles the ongoing struggles of Minamata disease victims to hold the state responsible in one of Japan’s worst cases of industrial pollution.
Minamata disease victims struggle to find closure
More than 60 years after first raising awareness about a neurological disease caused by industrial mercury poisoning, photojournalist Aileen M. Smith still wants answers.
People with Minamata disease offer life lessons for Oita students
School students learn about mercury pollution and related stigma that are associated with the illness.
Dancer aims to reinvent Minamata, long known for disease caused by pollution, into a city of samba
Minamata in Kumamoto Prefecture has long been known mainly for a deadly industrial pollution debacle that occurred decades ago, but a dancing teacher hopes he can help reinvent it into the city of samba. Masashi Ito, who prefers to go by his first name, has ...
Citizens' group leader Fumiko Hiyoshi, who worked for sufferers of Minamata disease, dies at 103
Fumiko Hiyoshi, who headed a citizens' group and supported Minamata disease sufferers for more than half a century, died Wednesday due to old age at a nursing home in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, a person close to her family said. She was 103. Hiyoshi, who was ...
Michiko Ishimure, award-winning author who raised public awareness of Minamata disease, dies at 90
Michiko Ishimure, an award-winning author and social critic whose works put the spotlight on what became known as Minamata disease, died early Saturday due to acute exacerbation of Parkinson's disease. She was 90. A native of Kumamoto Prefecture, the prolific Ishimure is known for raising ...
Minamata disease victims' voices dim with age but still cry for recognition
Shinobu Sakamoto was just 15 when she left home in the Kumamoto Prefecture fishing village of Minamata to go to Stockholm and tell the world of the horrors of mercury poisoning. Forty-five years on, she has flown overseas again, this time to Geneva, to attend ...
International treaty on curbing mercury pollution enters into force
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 ...
Minamata survivor to attend conference on treaty to prevent mercury pollution
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 ...
Niigata Minamata disease victims shed light on stigma in new book
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 ...
The government has done a poor job of identifying and providing relief to victims of Minamata disease.
