The Minamata Disease as an Example of Government Weakness Essay

The Minamata Disease as an Example of judicature WeaknessThe effects of Minamata distemper, which originated in Minamata, Japan, first came to the attention of local fishermen. They referred to cats stricken with the disease as the suicide-prone group of dancing cats due to their tendency to leaping around, and then jump into the nearby bay (Ui, 1992). From 1940 through the late twentieth century, thousands of inhabitants of Minamata developed that aforesaid(prenominal) neurological disease that resulted from heavy industrial befoulment of Minamata Bay. They did not receive comely g overnment protection against such a disaster because of the citys poor economic structure and the low-spirited national drive to industrialize Japan. One company, Nippon Chisso Ltd. or Chisso for short, which worked extensively with chemicals in the achievement of energy and of industrial materials, comprised the local economy. Before it became a pith for the Japanese chemical in dustry, Minamata generated revenue almost entirely from brininess labor enterprises. In 1908, the Japanese government had recently decided to take over the salt industry and the village needed new sources of income. At the same time Jun Noguchi, a recently graduated electrical engineer and hold of the Chisso Company, needed a location to build a new carbide production plant. Minamata won the bid for the factorys location through a favorable deal to Noguchi, in which the local government offered the old salt industrys land at very low prices. The city also provided a route for electricity to reach the factory at no charge (Ui, 1992). These offers established the policy of the government, and indeed of Minamata as a whole, to defer to the Chisso Companys wishes to ... .... Measures to avoid a situation of that temper must focus on the enactment of effective policy by both local and national governments to regulate their industries, and focus on having an adequate number of revenue-generating industries so as not to jeopardize public interests.ReferencesUi, J. (1992). industrial Pollution in Japan. Tokyo United Nation University PressHarada, M. (n.d.). Minamata disease and the Mercury Pollution of the Globe.Retrieved February 19, 2003, fromhttp//www.einap.org/envdis/Minamata.htmlname. Littlefield, A. (1996). Minamata Bay Pollution in Japan and wellness Impacts. Retrieved February 19, 2003, from http//www.american.edu/TED/MINAMATA.HTM. Ziegler, J. (1995). Rays of Hope in the Land of the Rising Sun Electronic version.Environmental wellness Perspectives, 103(5), (n.p.).