Ichida criticizes LDP, Komei, DPJ for drawing curtain on Minamata disease issue

Japan Press Weekly

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Ichida criticizes LDP, Komei, DPJ for drawing curtain on Minamata disease issue

The Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition and the Democratic Party of Japan have agreed to enact a bill within the current Diet session ostensibly to relieve Minamata-disease patients.

The move is apparently aimed at acquitting a company of the responsibility for the pollution that caused many people to suffer from the incurable diseases and closing the case without taking measures to relieve potential victims of the pollution.

The DPJ jumped on the call of the ruling parties for consultations to amend the bill submitted by them to bail out only Chisso Corp., the defendant in the Minamata disease lawsuit.

In a meeting on June 26 with a group of plaintiffs in the Minamata disease lawsuit demanding the government pay compensation, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi criticized the ruling parties and the DPJ for moving to close the case by ignoring Minamata disease victims.

He said that the task now is to establish a law to hold Chisso Corp, the government, and concerned prefectural governments responsible, and to relieve all sufferers, including those not yet identified.

Pointing out that there will be little difference between the ruling parties' bill and minor amendments to wording proposed by the DPJ, Ichida said that both are aimed at obscuring the responsibility of Chisso Corp. and the scope of damage in addition to those who are suffering from peripheral sensory disorder of the extremities.

Leader of the patients' association Oishi Toshio said, "If we allow the bill, to be enacted, it will have a negative impact for years to come. It is unacceptable that the three parties are united in protecting Chisso, the polluter company."

Lawyer Nakamura Yoji said, "We have been fighting in courts for half a century. Despite this fact, the ruling parties and the DPJ suddenly began running around in the Diet waving this proposed bill around the last few days."

On June 25, a group of patients, plaintiffs, and lawyers started a sit-in protest in front of the Diet Building, and JCP members of the Diet were there to encourage their action.

On June 24, prior to their sit-in, they came to Tokyo from the damage-hit prefectures of Kumamoto and Niigata to make representations to Dietmembers of the three parties so that they know about the reality of Minamana disease.

Minamata disease was caused by the organic mercury in waste water discharged from a Chisso plant into Minamata Bay during the 1950s and 60s, killing hundreds of people and disabling thousands. It also led to many birth defects in the region.

- Akahata, June 25, 26 & 27, 2009