There is a good reason why I chose "Itai-itai disease" among the four major pollution diseases.
This was because it was the first pollution issue in which the plaintiffs prevailed in a civil trial for pollution. After the Ashio Mineral Poisoning Trial, there have been numerous lawsuits in various parts of Japan claiming damages from pollution, but in every case, the victims(plaintiffs) lost the case.
I believe there were three reasons for this.
The first reason was the plaintiffs' failure to have strong counsel. Since defense attorneys have a living to make, one cannot blame them for wanting to be hired by clients who pay as well as possible. And since most of the polluters were large corporations that paid well, they had access to competent lawyers.
The second reason was that the victim population had been divided. This means that were a small number of victim people who were employed by the defendant company as workers.
After World War Ⅱ,the farmland of large landowners was sold off to small farmers at throwaway prices under agrarian reform by GHQ. The policy itself was groundbreaking. However, especially in areas north of the Hokuriku region, winters were covered with snow and income not earned during that time. Therefore, especially male workers, had to migrate to get their income. It was mines, coal mines, or factories that provided them with places to work at such time.(They were also a source of pollution.)
The third reason was "rapid economic growth" (esp.that of Japan in the post-WWⅡ period).
After Japan was defeated in the Greater East Asia War(I dare not write "Pacific War", Japan was in a state of hyper-inflation and unpaid wages were rampant, and the lives of the common people were on the verge of bankruptcy. However, in the midst of the Cold War, the Western powers had Japan increase its economic power and rearm Japan to defend itself(the National Police Reserve) in order to make Japan a bulwark against communism. As a result, Japan recovered its prewar industrial production capacity, and as children born after the war reached working age, they were increasingly placed in factories, mines, and other workplaces as "promised generation".
Although there were some scholars who warned against this excessive emphasis on manufacturing, most people were buoyed by economic growth and pushed forward with mass production and mass consumption.
The "four major pollution diseases" were monsters spawned by these factors.
Returning to the Itai-itai disease, initially,people who worked in the mines and farmers who feared the reputational damage that could be caused by the pollution raised cautious opinions.
However,after tearful appeals from families who had lost family members to the damage, the victims finally decided to take the case to court.
The defense lawyers for the defendant company were all highly skilled, having handled a variety of pollution disputes.
On the other hand,the plaintiffs' attorneys were young, with an average age of 37, and they were responsible for their own court costs.
The trial was expected to be protracted.
In the 1960s, however, as the distortions of economic groth began to appear in the form of river pollution, sludge as typified by Tokyo Bay, and health hazards caused by air pollution, public option began to pressure the companies responsible for the pollution to take action and provide relief to the victims.
The court finally moved on this public option, and at 10：00 a.m on June 30, 1971. The Toyama District Court ruled that "proof of a casual relationship between pollution and the causative agent does not necessarily require scientific proof.Therefore, we fully admit the plaintiff's suit and order the company to compensate and remedy the pollution."
The plaintiffs won the case in its entirety. The Court of Appeals rendered a similar decision,confirming the victory of the plaintiffs.
