Departures of note

Tsuginori Hamamoto was a Minamata disease patient who became one of the most prominent advocates for victims of the industrial mercury poisoning in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture. He worked as a fisherman in Minamata and fell ill in 1955, before the disease was officially confirmed, and both of his parents also died of Minamata disease.

He joined the first Minamata disease lawsuit seeking damages from the responsible company Chisso, and after winning helped establish the current compensation system through negotiations at Chisso's headquarters. In 1972 he traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, with fetal-disorder patient Shinobu Sakamoto to appeal to the world about the victims' suffering at the UN Conference on the Human Environment.

In 1984 he founded the 'Asia and Minamata Connection' and traveled widely to warn about environmental destruction. From 1994 he worked as the first storyteller (kataribe) at the Minamata Disease Museum, telling schoolchildren and others about the dangers of pollution. He died of pneumonia on October 16, 2026, at the age of 90.