It has been known in connection with a chronic mercury poisoning incident spawning over decades, leading to the once-mysterious "Minamata disease". A single mercury polluting corporation was at fault for killing hundreds and harming thousands of people in Minamata and nearby.
External links
Official website (http://www.minamatacity.jp/) in Japanese
Minamatadisease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning.
Minamata was even dubbed as Chisso's "castle town", in reference to the capital cities of feudal lords who ruled Japan from the 16th to 19th century.
The staple food of victims was invariably fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay and that the cats in the local area, who tended to eat scraps from the family table, had died with symptoms similar to those now discovered in humans.
The city and the adjacent Minamata Bay form a relatively closed ecosystem: the bay was a source of fish--and almost the city's exclusive source of protein--until the mid-1950s.
The Minamata case is such a vivid example because the town and the bay where the mercury was dumped may be seen as a relatively closed system.
Minamata is a paradigm for informing an environmental ethos that treading lightly is advisable where consequences are unknown.
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