9 : WHAT IS "MOYAI NAOSHI"?

"Moyai" literally means to tie boats together or to do something together, and “naoshi” means repairing something, or doing something again to get it right. We have given the name "Moyainaoshi" to cooperative community projects which stress tackling the Minamata disease issue directly and talking and working together here in Minamata, where the relationships among people and between people and nature were once destroyed.

At the time of the outbreak of Minamata disease, patients suffered from ostracism by their communities because it was feared the strange disease was contagious. Even after it was made clear that the cause was the mercury in Chisso's wastewater, the citizens, who were dependent upon Chisso, shunned the patients for threatening Chisso's existence through their lawsuits and demands for compensation.

The compensation payments gave rise to further discrimination and harassment, such as the false rumors that there were "fake patients" among those who had applied for certification. Since the disease was caused by Chisso, on which Minamata was economically dependent, and because of serious labor strife at Chisso, the residents were divided against each other, and communication between people on different sides of the issues was severed for a long time.

However, in recent years the government, citizens, and victims have overcome these problems and realized that "antagonism accomplishes nothing," and are talking, meeting, and working together for the reconstruction of Minamata.

[PREV] [TOP] [NEXT]

back