Nearly forty years after the outbreak of the "Minamata Disease," it remains one of the most horrific examples of environmental poisoning. Based on primary documents and interviews, this book describes three rounds of responses to this incidence of mercury poisoning, focusing on the efforts of its victims and their supporters, particularly the activities of grassroots movements and popular campaigns, to secure redress. George argues that Japan's postwar democracy is ad hoc, fragile, and dependent on definition through citizen action and that the redress effort is exemplary of the great changes in the second and third postwar decades that redefined democracy in Japan.
- ISBN10 0674003640
- ISBN13 9780674003644
- Publish Date 30 April 2001
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 14 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Harvard University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 350
- Language English