Supreme Court of Japan

The corporation continued to fight the multiple cases in court.

It wasn't until 2004 that the Supreme Court of Japan finally held the government liable for negligence in regulating industrial pollution that led to Minamata disease.

The court ordered the government to pay $703,000 in damages.

Even so, many believe that no amount of money could compensate for the decades of suffering, deformities, and death.

It's been delayed for more than a decade with fresh legal challenges on every step of the way.

In July of 2026, Japan's Supreme Court ruled by local plaintiffs still have standing to keep challenging the permit.

They're still questioning it at every step of the way.

The plan requires filling 156 hectares of the bay for a V-shaped, 1800-metre runway.

Survivors had like five years to apply for it, subject to approval by a board of experts.

And in July of 2024, the Supreme Court of Japan finally struck down this eugenics law.

And they also eliminated the 20-year statute of limitations for those affected by the law.

And then in also the same year, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida formally apologized to 130 victims of forced sterilizations under the eugenics law and approved compensation measures for several thousand more of the victims and their relatives.