The Open Research Center for Minamata Studies

Journey through Time and Space with the Shin-Nihon Chisso Labor Union

The Shin-Nihon Chisso Labor Union was a union of Chisso Corporation, the company that caused Minamata disease; however, the union opposed the company. The union charged the company with causing Minamata disease and began to support the Minamata disease patients. Because of this, its activities are noteworthy in the history of labor unions in Japan, where many unions take the side of the employer. The union possessed documents and materials including the journals and leaflets/bills from its creation till its dissolution. Those materials were donated to the Open Research Center for Minamata Studies in April, 2005. Former union members and staff at the Center have put them in order, recorded them in an inventory, and from 2009 we have released some materials in public. However, it is getting harder to identify the places in these old pictures because of drastic changes in Minamata with the passing of time. To make matters worse, those who used to be the union members are getting older. We will have a day when no one experienced the labor campaign. When we look back to our history after the war, people’s interest towards the history of labor has increased in social turning points. Since the primary documents cannot always tell enough of the history, we help you understand it better by showing the picture materials from past to present on maps. As for the details of the union’s history, please explore “The Film Chronicle of the History of the Shin-Nihon Chisso Labor Union” in Database of Archival Documents of the Open Research Center for Minamata Studies.