website list of research Despite the fact that anti-pollution measures and patient-support programmes started in the 1970s, it took four more decades for the Government to fully admit responsibility and apologize on-site; on 1May 2010 Prime Minister Hatoyama was the first Prime Minister to participate in a yearly-held Memorial Service for the Victims of Minamata Disease and to so demonstrate regret on behalf of the national government. Minamata Eco-Town Minamata Eco-Town constitutes a set of environmental goals and initiatives, which seek to turn the town's negative legacy into a positive present and future. The idea dates back to 1992. In that year, the municipal government of Minamata announced ‘Moyai Naoshi’ (meaning ‘Repairing social bonds’) - a policy to amend relations between victims of the Minamata Disease and the other citizens and to give an end to prevailing social divisions. On 1 April 1992 the first Memorial Service for the Victims of Minamata Disease was organized and has taken place annually ever since. Moreover, the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum was founded in January 1993 in order to collect, preserve and pass on information about the disease and related issues. Apart from exhibitions, the Museum offers story-telling sessions by Minamata disease patients. Additional Minamata Disease archives were opened in 2001. In respect of envisaged sustainable development, the municipal government addressed environmental challenges along the social ones; A Declaration of the Construction of Eco-City Model was launched in 1992. Subsequently, waste separation by citizens became one of the key activities; today, 24 different kinds of waste are separated. A Prize for the Environment was established to promote sustainability across Japan and South-East Asia and a prefectural environmental centre was built in Minamata. Other major events and achievements: In 1996, an International Environment Forum was held in Minamata Cultural Hall. The topic was "Creating a city that is kind to the environment" In 1997, Minamata Bay Safety Declaration was issued and no more restrictions on fishing or consuming fish were valid In 1999, Minamata City Hall was certified with ISO 14001, so was the local chemical plant of Chisso In 2001, Minamata became an officially recognized Japanese Eco-Town In 2008, Kumamoto Toa IWD, after years of protests and civil resistance, withdrew a plan to build a landfill for industrial waste in the mountains near Minamata City Currently, Minamata employs a plan of reducing greenhouse gases by 32% in 2020 and by 50% in 2050