Japanese Government Found Partly to Blame for Minamata Disease
Oct. 15, 2004 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's Supreme Court said the government shares responsibility for the spread of Minamata mercury-poisoning disease in the 1950s and 1960s, closing years of litigation in the environmental contamination case.

It was the first Supreme Court judgment on the government's responsibility in the 48-year history of the disease. Judge Hiroharu Kitagawa upheld a 2001 high court ruling that the central government and a local government must compensate victims, along with chemical maker Chisso Corp.

The court ordered the governments to pay a total of 71.5 million yen ($652,900) to 37 of 45 plaintiffs, said Kenichi Yokota, an official of a support group for the plaintiffs.

``This is a very big ruling for us,'' said Yokota, who listened to the ruling in the courtroom and spoke to Bloomberg by telephone. ``The compensation amount is too low, but it was good that the Supreme Court upheld the high court's ruling.''

The disease killed hundreds of people, disabled thousands and produced birth defects in the city of Minamata, Kumamoto prefecture, on Kyushu Island. The poisoning was caused by seafood contaminated with organic mercury that Chisso dumped into the local bay.

Chisso, founded in Minamata in 1908, was using methyl mercury to make acetaldehyde, a material for polyvinyl chloride. Minamata disease was detected in 1953. The company discharged untreated factory waste into Minamata Bay until 1968, when the government recognized the emissions as the cause of the disease.

Last Minamata Case

The Kumamoto government took steps to catch poisoned fish and purify water in Minamata Bay until 1997, when it declared the water quality to be normal.

The lawsuit was the last Minamata case remaining after others were withdrawn following a 1995 government-proposed settlement. It was originally filed in the Osaka District Court in 1982.

The district court in 1994 ordered Chisso to pay compensation to some plaintiffs, while ruling the governments not responsible. That ruling was overturned in 2001 by the Osaka High Court, which said the central and local governments also were liable. The High Court ordered the governments and the company to pay a total of 320 million yen to plaintiffs.

The governments and the plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, with the plaintiffs claiming, among other things, that the governments should have banned consumption of local fish and clams.

The high court ruled the governments had failed to implement clean water safeguards to prevent the poisoning



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