Abstract
Summary Yokkaichi asthma, one of the four big pollution diseases of Japan, occurred as a result of the operation of local petrochemical complexes in the city of Yokkaichi in the early 1960s. This article explores how Yokkaichi asthma was caused, how it was certified by local government and how the air pollution victims ultimately won a lawsuit against the polluting corporations. Yoshida Katsumi, a Medical Professor at Mie Prefectural University, consulted the Atomic Bomb Medical Law to establish Yokkaichi’s own certification system. Because both leukaemia and asthma are non-specific diseases, they may also be caused by non-pollution-related factors. In the Yokkaichi lawsuit, Yoshida applied the epidemiological causation to the legal judgment for the purpose of providing compensation to individuals. As the case for compensation unfolded from 1967 to 1972, epidemiological knowledge, legal theory and social norms were deployed to advance the plaintiffs’ claim, whose success set a good example for other legal proceedings.
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