Japan's Minamata victims call halt to ocean discharge of nulcear-contaminated wastewater

TOKYO, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Japanese groups of Minamata disease victims have called for the Japanese government to put an immediate stop to discharging nuclear-contaminated wastewater from Fukushima into the ocean to avoid repeating the tragic history of Minamata disease.

Minamata disease victim groups from Japanese prefectures of Kumamoto and Niigata on Thursday warned against ignoring the potential health risks posed by the ocean discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushina Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, local media reported.

The remarks were made at a press conference held on Thursday in Minamata City, Kumamoto, where the group members shared their personal experiences as victims, according to national news agency Kyodo.

Koichiro Matsunaga, a 60-year-old patient with fetal-type Minamata disease who attended the press conference, emphasized that the Japanese government had "completely failed to learn from the lessons of Minamata disease."

During the 1950s and 1960s, the residents of Minamata City in Kumamoto Prefecture and the Agano River Basin in Niigata Prefecture suffered from mercury poisoning due to the continuous discharge of mercury-contaminated wastewater by local chemical industries.

Ultimately, approximately 3,000 people were recognized by the government as Minamata disease patients.

"It was unprecedented in human history in terms of health damage it caused through environmental pollution and the level of spread and severity in harming the natural environment, leaving behind adverse effects across the local communities that lasted for a protracted period of time," said Japan's Ministry of the Environment in a booklet concerning the disease.

"The entire incident constituted a bitter lesson for the government," it noted.