Meiji Japan’s “Fukushima”: The Ashio Copper Mines Pollution Scandal 明治時代の「福島」足尾銅山鉱毒事件 (1)
1. Earlier this April I travelled what seemed like one of the most desolate places I have seen in Japan: the area around the Ashio Copper Mines. Mining ceased in 1973, and 1980 the mines re-opened as a tourist attraction. In 2017, it looked to me as if even tourism…