TOKYO — A Japanese court on Wednesday ordered the central government, the Kumamoto prefecture and a chemical company to recognize more than 120 plaintiffs as patients of the decades-old Minamata mercury poisoning and pay compensation they have been denied because they developed symptoms after moving away from the region.and ordered the government, Kumamoto and Chisso Corp., which is held responsible for the pollution, to pay 2.75 million yen each, according to officials and media reports.
In the ruling, Judge Yuki Tatsuno said the plaintiffs were presumed to have consumed fish tainted with mercury at levels high enough to develop the disease as children before moving away from the region. Their symptoms, including numbness of the limbs, were typical of the mercury poisoning and cannot be explained by any other cause, the ruling said.
Yoshiyuki Tokui, a lawyer, praised the ruling as “epoch-making and one that will significantly push forward relief measures for Minamata disease.”first diagnosed in 1956, was later linked to the consumption of seafood from the Minamata Bay on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu, where Chisso dumped mercury compounds.
The central government had argued that there was no evidence to prove the plaintiffs suffered from Minamata disease.Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that the government will take appropriate measures to improve medical, welfare and community support.