Japan's court recognizes more victims of Minamata mercury poisoning and awards them compensation
A Japanese court has ordered the central government, the Kumamoto prefecture and a chemical company to recognize more than 120 plaintiffs as patients of the decades-old Minamata mercury poisoning and pay compensation they have been denied because they ...
TOKYO — A Japanese court on Wednesday ordered the central government, the Kumamoto prefecture and a chemical company to recognize more than 120 plaintiffs as patients of the decades-old Minamata mercury poisoning and pay compensation they have been denied because they developed symptoms after moving away from the region.
The Osaka District Court recognized all 128 plaintiffs as Minamata disease victims and ordered the government, Kumamoto and Chisso Corp., which is held responsible for the pollution, to pay 2.75 million yen ($18,400) each, according to officials and media reports.
The plaintiffs, in their 50s and 80s, were living in Kumamoto and nearby Kagoshima at the time of the mercury poisoning and later moved to Osaka and elsewhere in western Japan. They filed a lawsuit in 2014, saying they were unfairly excluded from a 2009 compensation. They had demanded 4.5 million yen ($30,170) each, according to their lawyers.
In the ruling, Judge Yuki Tatsuno said the plaintiffs were presumed to have consumed fish tainted with mercury at levels high enough to develop the disease as children before moving away from the region. Their symptoms, including numbness of the limbs, were typical of the mercury poisoning and cannot be explained by any other cause, the ruling said.
“I’m so happy that the court made a fair decision,” said Yoshie Maeda, a 74-year-old who now lives in Osaka.
Yoshiyuki Tokui, a lawyer, praised the ruling as “epoch-making and one that will significantly
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