Yoshinobu Takagi, the last surviving plaintiff in the itai-itai disease lawsuit that sought compensation from the company responsible for the pollution, died on Sunday at a hospital in Toyama, Kyodo News reported. He was 96 and from Toyama.
The cause was malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and chest wall.
Itai-itai disease — "it hurts, it hurts" disease — is one of Japan's four major pollution-related illnesses. It broke out in the Jinzu River basin in Toyama Prefecture, where cadmium discharged into the river accumulated in rice paddies and in the bodies of residents who ate the rice and drank the water.
A case that outlasted its plaintiffs
Takagi was the only plaintiff still alive from the litigation that demanded compensation from the company blamed for the poisoning. His death leaves the legal fight without a living plaintiff from that suit, though the disease and its aftermath in the basin remain.