Minamata Environmental Regeneration Project
The fact that the pollution was caused by Chisso, a company that supported the local economy, meant that
the polluter and those affected by the pollution lived alongside each other, making it difficult for the
community as a whole to squarely take on the Minamata Disease issue. The case tore apart the local
government, patients and the rest of the community, as if the entire local community became diseased.
Minamata became a "place that should be avoided" to the rest of the nation. The negative image caused the
people of Minamata to become ashamed of being Minamata natives, subjected high school students on
Recovered Minamata Bay (2008)
Photograph: Makoto Morishita
17
graduation trips to discliminatory treatment, and adversely affected the sale of products made in Minamata.
In the given circumstance, Kumamoto Prefecture and Minamata City jointly undertook the Minamata
Environmental Regeneration Project from 1990 to 1998 to recreate the community bond. When the project
originally begun, there was a strong sense of hesitation in the community about facing the Minamata
Disease issue. However, as the years went by, the project built people's awareness toward Minamat's
regeneration and subsequently evolved into a citizen-led initiative. Patients, general public, government and
Chisso took on the Minamata Disease issue head on, jointly organizing various events to promote correct
understanding of the disease and encourage mutual understanding among all the citizens in the initiative
dubbed "Moyai Naoshi" to regain the bond within the local community. "Moyai" refers to the "Moyai Net",
which is used to tie ships together, and also the "Moyai" collaboration practice at farming communities.
"Moyai Naoshi" represents the initiative to face the issue of Minamata Disease and collaborate through
dialogs to regenerate the community.
In this process of the Minamata Environmental Regeneration Project, the Minamata City Assembly
declared its commitment to "community development that values the environment, health and welfare" in
June 1992. In November of the same year, Minamata City became the nation's first municipality to declare
the promotion of "Eco-Model City Development".