Teshima is one of these idyllic remote islands. Located in the Seto Inland Sea, it is home to 760 residents across its nine square miles. Agriculture and tourism are its main industries, with rice, olives, strawberries and citrus fruits grown on the island.
Residents boast of its beauty. But it has taken over 30 years of their tireless campaigning for this natural beauty to be restored. In the 1980s, almost one million tons of industrial waste was dumped on Teshima’s western tip, in the worst case of its kind in Japan’s history.
It began when a company, which misleadingly called itself Teshima Comprehensive Tourism Development, submitted a request to the local government to import waste into Teshima.
Teshima Tourism started to import toxic waste which had not been agreed upon. This included slag from copper refining, waste oil, and shredder residue from crushed vehicles. These materials often contained heavy metals such as mercury and lead, which began poisoning the land and the surrounding sea.