Japan slowly wakes up to health risks of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’

The Japan Times
May 29, 2023

Japan slowly wakes up to health risks of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’


The country has a long history of industrial pollution, including that which led to the Minamata disease of the 1950s and ‘60s. In that dark chapter in the nation’s history, thousands of people in and around Kumamoto and Niigata prefectures suffered from severe neurological symptoms after eating fish and shellfish, not knowing that they were laced with methylmercury released into the ocean and rivers by the regions’ chemical plants.