- TOKYO: More than 2,000 patients of Minamata mercury poisoning have agreed with the government and a pollution-causing company to accept a court-proposed redress package.
The landmark decision Monday would also help thousands more victims left unrecognized for decades.
The plan, brokered by a district court in southern Kumamoto - home to the rare neurological disorder linked to mercury dumped into a local bay - calls for lump-sum payments of 2.1 million yen ($22,600) and monthly medical allowances of up to 17,700 yen ($190) to each.
The government has only recognized 2,000 patients of Minamata disease, first diagnosed in 1956 and later was linked to the consumption of mercury-contaminated fish from southern Kyushu island's Minamata Bay.