Reluctance to Compensation

Minamata has been one of the symbols of negative impact of rapid industrial growth of Japan in post-war years. Residents who ate fish contaminated with methyl mercury emitted from a chemical factory in Minamata city to the river suffered from sensory disorder or narrowing of visual field. With appeals for expanding the area of governmental compensation, the Supreme Court decided to apply a new standard for registration of “Minamata Disease.” A woman who was approved as a patient by the Court had died forty-six years ago, indicating government’s reluctance to compensation.

The government of Japan has been paying the compensation along with a standard in 1977 that certification of Minamata Disease required not only sensory disorder, but also any other phenomena that stemmed from chemical poison from the factory. The Supreme Court determined that there was no reason for acknowledging only patients sufficient for the standard and it was reasonable to certificate patients with single phenomenon. The plaintiff was a patient only with sensory disorder.

On the background, there is a consistent reluctance of the government for paying compensation to the patients, with firm belief that saving money is absolute good for government even if it harms some sufferers. That attitude always invited criticisms from public who required flexible response to social responsibility of the government.

Compromising with consistent movement to require compensation, the government paid “temporary money” to seek political solution with patients. But, after the Supreme Court approved the responsibility of the government in failing prevention, more patients appeared for the compensation.

It is common for the government of Japan to make matters worse by failing in approval of its responsibility in honest way. In the acknowledgement of victims of nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the government has been very reluctant to acknowledge the sufferers, rendering mental burden to the sufferers. The officials of the government cannot get out of a firm belief that once the government loosen the standard for compensation, there will be great number of turn-outs to make the government bankrupted.

The same attitude can be seen in Japan’s diplomacy. The government has long been reluctant to paying compensation to the “comfort women” at the time of the World War II, saying that Japan had paid enough and no more compensation could be approved. This negative attitude makes the problems remain unsolved, leaving the governmental responsibility ignored.