Man-ei Industry, an activated carbon recycling company in Kibichuo Town, has neither disclosed that its company caused the water pollution nor apologized to the residents.

Tansa visited the current president, Takahiro Maeda, but he refused to be interviewed face-to-face. Maeda’s younger brother, Kengo Maeda, who serves as a director, requested in an email that the company name not be used in reporting.

Is the company planning not to take responsibility? I decided to visit another executive at Man-ei Industry. He was the president at the time that they started placing PFOA containing activated carbon in the property ward.

“I’d love to talk to you”

Man-ei Industry has been family-run for generations as follows. (Omitted before May 1996)

June 1996 – President Norihiro Maeda

 

December 2005 – President Shigenobu Maeda (Norihiro’s younger brother)

 

August 2010 – President Norihiro Maeda

 

November 2010 – President Shigenobu Maeda (Norihiro’s younger brother)

 

August 2011 – President Takahiro Maeda (Norihiro’s eldest son)

I decided to focus on Shigenobu Maeda.

He was the president at the time in 2007 when the company signed a lease agreement with the town for the “property ward” that had become a source of contamination due to the abandonment of PFOA containing activated carbon.

Furthermore, Shigenobu Maeda is currently a director of Man-ei Industry and is also the largest shareholder of Man-ei Industry. The remaining shares are held in equal amounts by the father, Norihiro Maeda, and his sons, Takahiro Maeda, and Kengo Maeda.

On August 8, 2024, Tansa’s editor-in-chief, Makoto Watanabe, and I visited Shigenobu Maeda’s home in Okayama Prefecture and waited for him to return home.

At 6:30 p.m., Shigenobu Maeda came home by car after finishing work. As he got out of the car and started walking from the parking lot to his house, I called out to him.

“Sorry for showing up so suddenly. I’m Nakagawa, a reporter for a media called Tansa. You’re Mr. Shigenobu Maeda, right?”

Shigenobu Maeda replied, “Yes, that’s right. Ah, Tansa, I know you.”

When Watanabe joined us halfway through and handed over his business card, Shigenobu Maeda replied, “I can’t accept a business card. I watch you on YouTube, and I have your photo printed out and bound in a file.”

When I asked him to tell me about PFOA contamination, Shigenobu Maeda said the following:

“I’d love to talk to you, but my lawyers have been telling me not to.”

“Then could you tell me as much as possible?”

When I asked him so, Shigenobu Maeda responded to the interview on the spot.

The assumption that major companies aren’t “using anything strange”

Shigenobu Maeda had this to say about when he learned that the tap water was contaminated:

“I never thought it was our fault.”

Nonetheless, the administration then started looking into Man-ei Industry and carried out multiple on-site investigations of the company. When the activated carbon placed in the property ward was tested, significant levels of PFOA were found.

When he learned of the survey results, he thought:

“I wondered why something like this (PFOA) was in there, and whether our trading partners were handling activated carbon incorrectly.”

“We weren’t told anything about PFOA by our trading partners.”

“Because our trading partners are major companies, we assume they’re not using anything strange.”

To put it another way, he asserted that he was unaware that PFOA was present in activated carbon, much less that large corporations would contaminate it.

“Not three, but two”

In reality, however, the activated carbon purchased from the major companies contained a large amount of PFOA. A prefectural investigation revealed that it had leached out 4.5 million ng/L, 90,000 times the national guideline.

Which trading partners did not inform Man-ei Industry of the fact that the product contained PFOA?

Koyoshi, head of the resident affairs division of the town, which is responsible for looking into the cause, said, “In our investigation of Man-ei Industry, we heard that there were ‘three major companies’.”

When I asked Shigenobu Maeda, “Which three companies are you referring to?” he replied, “Not three, but two.”

So which are those two companies?

Previously I sent a questionnaire to Kuraray, which traded used activated carbon with Man-ei Industry, based on the testimony of a former employee of Man-ei Industry. Kuraray did not completely deny the possibility that the activated carbon that caused the contamination was its own, saying that it was extremely unlikely.

I was curious as to why Kuraray did not completely deny it, so I asked Shigenobu Maeda, “Is one of the two companies Kuraray?” Shigenobu Maeda did not deny it.

When asked about the other company, Shigenobu Maeda said, “I can’t tell you, but you’ll find out once you’ve looked into it.”

He continued, “Shoko Research, and then…” I replied, “Teikoku Databank?” to which he said, “Yes. They’re listed as one of our largest trading partners.”

Teikoku Databank and Tokyo Shoko Research are credit research firms. Their reporters travel across the country, conducting their own investigation to gather information on management situations and CEOs, which is then compiled into a database.

According to documents from Teikoku Databank and Tokyo Shoko Research, Man-ei Industry’s largest trading partner is Osaka Gas Chemical.

Shigenobu Maeda referred to these two companies and said:

“To be honest, I think activated carbon containing PFOA is handed to us by our business partners.”

He further emphasized the following.

“Activated carbon is like a fingerprint, so even if it’s mixed in, we can tell which company it came from. By analyzing it, we can also find out which factory it was used in and at which process.”

How about the management of the property ward?

Shigenobu Maeda’s argument seems to suggest that large companies are responsible.

However, if Man-ei Industry had properly managed the activated carbon it received from its major trading partners, PFOA would not have leaked.

First of all, Shigenobu Maeda himself was the one who signed the property ward’s lease with the town. Wasn’t the property’s management of Man-ei Industry careless? He denied it when questioned.

“Everything was done properly during my time. I covered it with a sheet to prevent ultraviolet rays from hitting it, and took other measures to stop the content from leaking underneath. I have photos.”

Perhaps the reason for taking such precautions was that they knew that the product contained harmful substances.

When asked about this, Shigenobu Maeda immediately replied, “That’s not true,” and continued:

“Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers have handles attached, but they are vulnerable to ultraviolet rays. If the handle breaks when you are lifting the bag up and moving it, the contents will spill out and you won’t be able to pick them up.”

When the president changed, did he hand over the information about management of the property ward to the next president? Shigenobu Maeda answered as follows.

“There were problems with the company’s handover itself, and I didn’t have time to think about it at the time.”

“The names of major companies should also be made public”

The interview in front of the parking lot lasted about an hour and a half. The sun had already fallen, and we could hardly see one other’s faces. We were bitten by mosquitos in several places on our arms and legs.

I asked him repeatedly,

“Why hasn’t Man-ei Industry come forward as the company that caused the pollution?”

Shigenobu Maeda answered:

“That’s true. We should say, ‘It’s our responsibility, and we’ll deal with it.’ If I were the president now, I would step forward and apologize, saying, ‘I’m sorry for the inconvenience.'”

He also said:

“The names of major companies who do business with us should also be made public.”

Interview with Shigenobu Maeda, former president of Man-ei Industry on August 8, 2024

To be continued.

(Originally published in Japanese on September 10, 2024. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

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