Discussion
The presenter reorganized the history of Minamata disease, Japan's representative pollution disease, from the outbreak to official recognition of pollution, and subsequent litigation, in a genealogical way, to clarify the 'social life' of the disease and to determine the biopolitical governance. I tried to raise the question of what is a law.
Minamata disease, which has been called "the unexplained disease" since 1956, has been called the current name Minamata disease since 1968 after the government officially announced as pollution disease. Considering the controversy over compensation and compensation for patients, the history of Minamata disease can be said to be a reduction in society showing the pathological structure of post-war Japan's highly capitalized capitalism. The presenter divides the history of Minamata disease into three period, the first period until the official recognition of Minamata disease, the second period from the announcement to the lawsuit and victory over compensation, and the third period from lawsuits surrounding unrecognized patients to political settlements. He tried to reconstruct it as a kind of social drama. Through the work of writing the chronicles of Minamata disease thickly, he tried to illuminate the process of the social formation of the disease, and many issues rediscovered in the process could be used as a research project.
In the first stage, which progressed from scurvy to disease, there are three main problems. The problem of failing to cope with the initial response due to the investigation of the causative agent, the problem of fetal Minamata disease that neglected newborns and children due to belief in the existing medical orthodoxy, and the problem of signing a consolation fund contract in 1959 in the form of not official compensation and compensation That's it. The litigation in the 2nd and 3rd period was initiated by a small number of lawsuits divided over the acceptance of a letter of promise to entrust disputes to patients with the Ministry of Health and Welfare under the establishment of the Minamata Disease Compensation Committee. The first lawsuit was about compensation for severely ill patients, which began in 1969, and the plaintiff won the case in 1972 based on the research results of the Minamata Disease Research Society as an important basis. It is believed that not only legal grounds, but also the pressure of public opinion, which was progressive at the time, greatly influenced this victory. The second lawsuit, which the plaintiff won, began in 1973, and was a lawsuit against which only a few were admitted due to strict recognition criteria compared to the number of victims who wished for relief. The third lawsuit, filed since 1980, has been held against the state's responsibility, and this was also resolved by the plaintiffs prevailing in most regions and the government's solution, but this was due to the pressure of public opinion and the court's recommendation for reconciliation, and the government's position was that it hasn't changed.
Through this history, the presenter saw that it is possible to understand the fact that events such as the Samsung Semiconductor Leukemia case and the humidifier disinfectant case are repeated in the same structure in Korea as a problem of the accreditation system. What is the meaning of the lawsuit and the law in the biopolitical governance, and even though the Minamata lawsuit was a groundbreaking measure that led to the plaintiff's full victory and prevented recurrence, only 10% of the patients applying for recognition were recognized and compensated in an ambiguous manner. Whether the limitation is due to the special circumstances of this disease or the essential nature of the lawsuit, whether the lawsuit is the weapon of the weak, etc. were raised as questions for future research. Finally, the presentation was concluded by presenting the implications of the practice of unrecognized patients who took direct action, such as the occupation of the head office, as the next task in the situation where the second lawsuit was filed.
After the presentation was over, questions and answers followed. What is the universality and specificity of the case of Minamata disease as a pollution disease, how the existing biopolitical governance should function after Covid-19, and whether it is possible to draw a new point in the Minamata disease lawsuit through the perspective of biopolitical governance, etc. The seminar was concluded after the inquiry was discussed.
