A Japanese district court orders the state and others to pay a total of 350 million yen ($2.3 million) in damages to 128 unrecognized sufferers of the Minamata mercury-poisoning disease, making it the first such ruling among similar lawsuits filed nationwide over the country's redress measure.
The latest court ruling on a legal case concerning the government’s relief program for Minamata disease patients challenges the fundamental integrity of the relief system and unequivocally underscores its inadequacy.
OSAKA The district court here handed down a ruling with potentially far-reaching ramifications by taking the side of plaintiffs who argued they should be covered by a special measures law providing government relief to victims of Minamata disease.