Staff writer
OSAKA -- The former executive director of a company that illegally disposed of industrial waste on the proposed Universal Studios Japan site has said at least 4 tons of a cancer-causing substance and 80 pits of sludge remain buried on the site.
Nao Watano, 51, said that under orders from Sumitomo Metal Industries, liquefied and metallic industrial waste was illegally disposed of by his former company, Nihon Sogo Service, in 1986, three years before the site was officially closed. Watano had originally stepped forward with this information six months ago, after learning that Sumitomo had offered to sell the 7.2-hectare dump site to the city.