Advances in the Center for Minamata Studies
Minamata Studies were advocated by Prof. Masazumi Harada with the purpose of “making use of Minamata disease and recognizing pollution as a negative legacy in the future” at Kumamoto Gakuen University (KGU) in 1999. Since then research, survey and education activities have been carried out.
After being approved by the executive board of our university, the Open Research Center for Minamata Studies was established in KGU in April 2005 and the On-site Research Center for Minamata Studies was established in Minamata City in August 2005. It is adopted as the Minamata Studies research project was adopted as an open research center project by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for FY 2005-2009. And, our project was adopted as Strategic Research Foundation Grant-aided Project for Private Universities of MEXT in FY 2010. We are promoting education and research with an international point of view having a foothold in the area around Minamata.
