THE HISTORY OF MINAMATA BAY

1. MINAMATA BAY ( CLASS GROUP ACTIVITY)
ASIA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
1. Sitti Sauda binti kuyong 201301-00024
2. Faridah Donna
201301-0020
3. Fresnah binti Ompiduk 201301-00017

2. HISTORY
Minamata is a small factory town.
Minamata Bay is a bay on the west
coast of Kyūshū island, located in
Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The
bay is part of the larger Shiranui
Sea which is sandwiched between
the coast of the Kyūshū mainland
and the off-lying islands of
Kumamoto and Nagasaki
prefectures.
The coastline is rugged, with many
inlets and coves which act as the
spawning grounds of fish and
shellfish. A great variety of
creatures live in this area.

3. Minamata Discovered
• Minamata disease (Japanese: 水俣病 Hepburn: Minamata-byō?), sometimes
referred to as Chisso-Minamata disease (チッソ水俣病 Chisso-Minamata-byō?), is
a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include
ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the
field of vision, and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity,
paralysis, coma, and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A
congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses in the womb.
• Minamata disease was first discovered in Minamata city in Kumamoto prefecture,
Japan, in 1956. It was caused by the release of methylmercury in the industrial
wastewater from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, which continued from
1932 to 1968. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in
Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea, which, when eaten by the local populace,
resulted in mercury poisoning. While cat, dog, pig, and human deaths continued for
36 years, the government and company did little to prevent the pollution. The
animal effects were severe enough in cats that they came to be called "dancing cat
fever.

4. Minamata Bay was heavily polluted in the
1950s and 1960s by wastewater
The Chisso Corporation's factory in
Minamata, particularly by
methylmercury.
The highly toxic compound bio
accumulated in fish and shellfish in the
bay which, when eaten by the people
living around the bay, gave rise to
Minamata disease. More than 10,000
people were affected.

5. The picture of situation

6. ( 1,784 of whom had died )

7. Solving Minamata
• March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially recognized (1,784 of
whom had died) and over 10,000 had received financial compensation
from Chisso. By 2004, Chisso Corporation had paid $86 million in
compensation, and in the same year was ordered to clean up its
contamination.On March 29, 2010, a settlement was reached to
compensate as-yet uncertified victims.
• A second outbreak of Minamata disease occurred in Niigata Prefecture
in 1965. The original Minamata disease and Niigata Minamata disease
are considered two of the Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan.

8. Continue of Solving Minamata
• “The mercury poisoning “incident” in Minamata has been grandly
pronounced resolved at least four times since the pollution began in
1932 and Minamata disease was officially recognized in 1956.
• In 1959 the Chisso Corporation paid compensation to fishing
cooperatives and “sympathy payments” to patients that required them
to renounce all future claims against the company. It did not accept
responsibility for the disease. At the same time, it also installed a
“Cyclator” to purify its wastewater, without announcing that the
Cyclator did not remove mercury.
• At a ceremony at the end of 1959, Chisso’s president publicly drank a
glass of water from the Cyclator, without announcing that the
wastewater from the acetaldehyde plant, which contained mercury,
was not being run through the Cyclator. An eerily similar performance
took place on March 24, 2011 when Tokyo’s Governor Ishihara
Shintarō drank a glass of tap water on national television to “prove”
that it was safe from radioactive contamination.

9. Minamata today
• Minamata disease remains an important issue in contemporary
Japanese society. Lawsuits against Chisso and the prefectural and
national governments are still continuing and many regard the
government responses to date as inadequate.
• On Monday, March 29, 2010, a group of 2,123 uncertified victims
reached a settlement with the government of Japan, the Kumamoto
Prefectural government, and Chisso Corporation to receive individual
lump sum payments of 2.1 million yen and monthly medical
allowances.
• Most congenital patients are now in their forties and fifties and their
health is deteriorating. Their parents, who are often their only source of
care, are into their seventies or eighties or already deceased. Often
these patients find themselves tied to their own homes and the care of
their family, effectively isolated from the local community.

10. References
• Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_Bay
^ "Memorial service marks Minamata tragedy's 50th year",
Japan Times, 2 May 2006, retrieved 29 October 2006 (free
registration required)