Tag - minamata

 
 

MINAMATA

EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2016
The Minamata Convention
Having experienced the dreadful results of mercury poisoning, Japan has a responsibility to help other countries in their efforts to prevent such pollution.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2015
Niigata editor suspended after pseudonymous, slanderous tweets come to light
A head of the news section at a regional newspaper has been punished with unpaid, indefinite suspension after slandering a lawyer and other people on a social network service website, the newspaper revealed Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jun 13, 2015
Mercury rising: Niigata struggles to bury its Minamata ghosts
The first thing Koichi Hirota noticed about Komatsu Hoshiyama was that he could not walk in a straight line. As the young neurologist proceeded with his examination in the cramped, sparse ward inside Niigata University Hospital, other symptoms became apparent: The 55-year-old Hoshiyama's body tingled...
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2014
Aiding more Minamata victims
Japan's government has restarted the process of officially recognizing more sufferers of Minamata disease — discovered decades ago to be the result of eating mercury-contaminated fish — under a new guideline that the Environment Agency adopted in March.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2014
Corporate blowback builds from Minamata treaty
The Japanese government lobbied hard for a global pact that limits mercury use and to name the resulting treaty after Minamata, the site of a homegrown industrial disaster from the 1950s when the toxic metal poured into a river, poisoning thousands.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2014
New burden for Minamata victims
The Environment Ministry appears to have relaxed conditions for the official recognition of Minamata disease victims, but the attached record-keeping requirements make it unlikely that many more people will receive financial relief.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 21, 2013
Mercury still threat, Abe assurances or not
Earlier this month, delegates from over 130 nations gathered in Kumamoto to launch the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The U.N.-brokered treaty aims to limit mercury use and emissions. It comes at a time when the U.N. Environmental Program warns half of all global anthropogenic mercury emissions come...
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2013
Pre-emption of mercurial hazards
Some might call it the epitaph for Japan's worst environmental tragedy. Delegates from about 140 countries meet in Kumamoto to adopt the Minamata Convention on regulating the use of mercury.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’