Overcoming Pollution in Japan and the Lessons Learned

In the 1950s and 1960s, Japan experienced unprecedented environmental pollution and accompanying health damages, or so-called pollution diseases. The four major ones in Japan are Minamata Disease, Niigata-Minamata Disease, Itai-Itai Disease and Yokkaichi Asthma. Other Asian countries are now experiencing, or are going to experience, environmental degradation including pollution as their economies develop, but the distress caused by pollution in Japan should not be repeated by its neighbors. This paper describes the severe water pollution Japan experienced, how Japan overcame it, and the efforts being made by governments and enterprises to alert other countries not to make the same mistakes as Japan made