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Fukushima in Light of Minamata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Timothy S. George
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Abstract

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The mercury discharged into the sea by the Chisso factory in Minamata, and the radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, are not entirely different “accidents,” although one was the result of a “natural disaster” and one not. Minamata offers hints of future developments as Japan attempts to respond to and recover from Fukushima.

Keywords

FukushimaFukushima Daiichi nuclear power plantMinamataMinamata diseaseTokyo Electric PowerTEPCOChissonatural disasterspollutionindustrial pollutionmercurymethyl mercuryorganic mercuryradiation
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 11 , March 2012 , e5
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

References

Notes

1 The company's name was Nihon Chisso Hiryō K.K. from its founding in 1908 to 1950, Shin Nihon Chisso Hiryō K.K. until 1965, and Chisso K.K. from 1965, but for simplicity it will be referred to here simply as Chisso.

2 For the details of the Minamata story, see Timothy S. George, Minamata: Pollution and the Struggle for Democracy in Postwar Japan, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001).

3 See Daniel P. Aldrich and Martin Dusinberre (2011), “Hatoko Comes Home: Civil Society and Nuclear Power in Japan.” Journal of Asian Studies 70(3): 1-23, for a study of such efforts in the 1980s in Kaminoseki, a town on the Japan Sea that is, ironically, relatively close to Hiroshima.

4 Quoted in Hiroko Tabuchi (2011), “Japan Courts the Money in Reactors,” New York Times, October 10, (link), accessed October 11, 2011.

5 See Brett L. Walker, Toxic Archipelago: A History of Industrial Disease in Japan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010).