1. Minamata disease remains an important issue in contemporary Japanese society.

2. Today, Chisso makes compensation payments to all certified (recognized) patients of Minamata disease.

3. The first report of Minamata disease originated in Minamata in Kumamoto Prefecture in the year 1956.

4. First, the lawyers had to show that methylmercury caused Minamata disease and that the company's factory was the source of pollution.

5. As of March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially recognised as having Minamata disease (1,784 of whom had died) and over 10,000 had received financial compensation from Chisso.

6. The deception was successful and almost all parties involved in Minamata disease were duped into believing that the factory's wastewater had been made safe from December 1959 onward.

7. Testimony at a later Niigata Minamata disease trial proved that Chisso knew the Cyclator to be completely ineffective: "The purification tank was installed as a social solution and did nothing to remove organic mercury."