The Study Exchange with prof. Peng Bo (School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Dec. 12th, 2013

Prof. Peng Bo, vice dean of School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. visited Kumamoto from Dec 1st to Dec 3rd. He took care of HIGO Program students when they visited Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ at HIGO Shanghai internship program. During the stay in Kumamoto, prof. Peng visited the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum on Dec 1st, and he had a study exchange program with HIGO students on Dec 2nd discussing the relationship between economic development and environmental issues, challenges of antipollution measure and environmental policy.

This time, Mr. Michikazu Ieri also participated. He is a leader editor of Kumamoto Daily Newspaper Co. who specializes in Japan's mercury problems. First, we watched the movie on Minamata Disease made by Minamata Museum.

After that, Mr. Iseri gave us a lecture with following contents.

・International trend for mercury regulation
・Background from the Minamata Disease development to the discovery of methyl mercury as causative substance
・Challenges of the lawsuit, compensation and official certification of patients
・How domestic and international media deal with the Minamata Disease problems

After his lecture, we actively discussed and Q&A regarding 1) the background why the discovery of Minamata Disease's causative substance experienced the lengthy delay, 2) local people's consciousness to air pollution in China, and 3) efforts to resolve mercury issues in EU countries.

Also, in Kumamoto Daily Newspaper Internship (September, 2013), some students have learned about the Minamata Disease from the points of various aspects, for example, victims, offenders, local people as o now and mass-media. In addition, prof. Peng presented topics of China's situation especially focusing on PM 2.5 recently concerned even in Japan. He pointed out the actual situation that environmental awareness of Chinese people lags behind the rapidly growing socioeconomic realities, and emphasized the challenges for environmental quality improvement in China.
Through this exchange, participants had active discussion on environmental issues between Japan and China with mercury problems in Minamata as the point of departure. Students could have very productive time with guests in terms of learning about the history of Minamata Disease, media coverage and the latest international trends of mercury regulation as a follow-up study of Kumamoto Daily Newspaper Internship.

  With Mr. Iseri's lecture I've found that in Asian countries including Japan and China, responses to environmental issues is not enough to compared with European countries. This fall, The Conference of Minamata Convention was held in Kumamoto, and lessons learned from mercury problems of Minamata were presented to the world. I thought taking this opportunity to develop responses to environmental issues through collaboration among East Asian countries is necessary. I think it's important to share common awareness of the issues through university-based international exchange around the world.

  This exchange became an opportunity I reawaked the reality that Minamata Disease happened in Kumamoto was brought to international attention. Also, it provided a valuable opportunity for learning about various culture and hot topic of environmental issues in China. I desire a deeper understanding about China as our neighbor country.

  After I heard about the Minamata Disease in Kumamoto and other pollution problems in Japan, I found the dangerous nature and deformity of pollution issues. On the one hand, with prof. Peng's discussion I keenly felt the difficulty of how to actually prevent these problems. Today, all the people in China are committed to getting sufficiently rich under the rapid economic growth. I think it's difficult to consider the environment before people's richness. Also, I think it may be actually difficult to prevent pollution problems by using advanced technology because of the expensive cost. In this discussion session, I got impatient because we couldn't find concrete solutions, but it became a valuable opportunity that I could hear raw opinions about environmental issues from Chinese scholar with my own ears.

  This time, through this discussion I come to think of "What do we have to tell to China based on the story of Japan's Minamata Disease problem?".  Nowadays, China has very serious environment pollution issues, for example, the particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) affects air quality even in Japan. Like this, environmental pollution can be cross-boundary problem, that is issue cannot be resolved by individual countries acting alone. It's natural that Japan blames China as pollutant source country. However, just criticizing serves no purpose for resolving problems of what's going on. Japan has long experiences to address environmental issues before China. So, I think it's important for China to share Japan's experiences and techniques, and to work with Japan for resolving environment pollution problems.