Koichi Yanagida and Passing down Activities on Minamata Disease

- Focusing on the Fundamental Structure of his Ideas -

Abstract

  This study reveals an aspect of the generation process of kogai kyouiku (education against environmental disruption), which was achieved by advocating an anti-pollution movement, by analyzing the fundamental structure of Koichi Yanagida’s idea in his passing down activities on Minamata disease. Yanagida was the representative of SOSHISHA, the Supporting Center for Minamata disease―an organization that conducted activities and supported movements related to Minamata disease. He also organized passing down activities on Minamata disease from the 1970s to the 1980s.

  Yanagida’s efforts are highlighted as follows. Interpreting Minamata disease as a problem representing the Japanese industrial society, Yanagida argues that it is necessary to transform the industrialized production systems and the lifestyles of people. He conducted his passing down activities on Minamata disease in the process of engaging in a movement aimed at transforming the production and lifestyles systems. Yanagida interpreted labor as an activity that possesses the function of forming human beings; he was interested in the industrialized life and education among children and adolescents. His passing down activities on Minamata disease comprised the following elements: 1) providing information on the overview of the damage caused by Minamata disease and its social structure, 2) underscoring recognition in a sensible manner, and 3) creating autonomy-based communities in different regions. For Yanagida, his passing down activities on Minamata disease represented not only a movement for social change but also an attempt to reorganize the system of forming human beings.