Paper short abstract:

This paper attempts to articulate the postmodern anthropology that is undoing the Western-centered discipline in the continuing time of decolonization in looking at the past and present in Minamata, Japan.

Paper long abstract:

Minamata is a fishing town in southern Japan which suffered from widespread mercury poisoning from industrial pollution during the mid-twentieth century. The methylmercury dumped into the bay between 1932 and 1968 caused damage to the nervous systems of people who ate contaminated fish, resulting in severe disabilities and the deaths among the victims, as well as many children born with the condition. It became known as Minamata Disease. Victims of the pollution as well as residents of Minamata have faced discrimination and stigma in Japan, and the community remains deeply divided. The Japanese government, which was complicit in covering up the contamination, has sought to end discussions of Minamata disease with compensation. In this sense, those who suffer from Minamata disease were, and continue to be, victims of Japan’s rapid industrialization and modernization.

Based on the ongoing situation above, this paper first considers how anthropology in Japan have done little research on Minamata, despite calls for anthropological research from Minamata in the 1980s (Ishimure 1983). It then attempts to articulate anthropology to the study of Minamata Disease through a discussion of postmodern anthropology. Postmodern anthropology has taken a critical look at the practices and various concepts of the Western-centered discipline influenced by decolonization. Thinking about a possible articulation postmodern and decolonial perspectives in another time and place, Minamata, it not only encourages us to reconsider other possibilities that might have been in the past, but also would contribute to the practice of undoing Western-centered anthropology.