Japan Press Weekly

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2023 October 4 - 10 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Koike talks with Minamata disease victims

Minamata disease (a neurological disease caused by severe mercury poisoning) victims and their lawyers visited Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira in the Upper House members’ office building on October 3, asking for JCP cooperation in regard to obtaining relief for all the victims.

On September 27, the Osaka District Court recognized that many Minamata disease victims are still left unattended, and called for a review of the present eligibility criteria set by the central government for relief.

The visitors told Koike that Dietmembers should work to establish a new system so that defendants (the central gov’t, Kumamoto gov’t, and Chisso Corp.) will be required to provide relief to all the victims.

Koike said, “The JCP will make efforts to raise public awareness of the issue and will create a movement calling on the authorities and the offending company not to appeal the case to a higher court. We will also press the environment minister to meet with the plaintiffs and implement relief measures.”

The JCP Dietmembers’ group on the same day in the Diet building made representations to Environment Minister Ito Shintaro, demanding that the central government take the Osaka court judgement seriously and fulfill its responsibility to provide aid to all the victims.

Past related article:
> Minamata disease patients win in Osaka court [September 28, 2023]