TOKYO: Minamata was the site of Japan’s worst ever industrial poisoning and is regarded as the dark side of Japan’s rapid modernization during the 20th Century.

For decades, a synthetic resin factory run by chemical company Chisso Corp. had been dumping methylmercury into the bay of the town on southwestern Kyushu island, poisoning the marine habitat. The methylmercury accumulated in shellfish and fish in the bay. For the many people living nearby whose chief source of protein was the sea, it meant the gradual build-up in their bodies of this powerful toxin.