Although Kibichuo Town does not have a PFOA facility, the tap water was contaminated with high levels of PFOA pollution.

The cause was PFOA-containing activated carbon that a local activated carbon recycling company, Man-ei Industry, had received from companies outside the town.

Two major companies, Osaka Gas Chemicals and Kuraray, have been named as the companies that handed the activated carbon over to Man-ei Industry.

Both companies acknowledge that they traded PFOA-containing activated carbon with Man-ei Industry.

However, there is one thing that both companies are being vague about: whether or not they provided any of the activated carbon that was left behind in the town and caused the water contamination.

Osaka Gas Chemical responded in a document, insisting that, “We have confirmed that it cannot be confirmed.”

Kuraray responded in a document, “our company’s involvement is very minimal.” However, the basis for this is weak. Some of what they are saying is not quite clear.

I wondered if I could interview the person in charge face-to-face, and after doing some research, I found the right person.

Acquiring the world’s largest activated carbon manufacturer

A Kuraray executive spoke at an online seminar for investors (hosted by Logmi Finance) on September 30, 2023. I found a recording of the event on YouTube.

This is Shinichi Takizawa, head of the IR/PR Department.

Takizawa cited activated carbon as a product with “relatively large sales.” In 2018, the company acquired Calgon Carbon, the world’s largest activated carbon manufacturer, based in the United States. Kuraray is expanding its business.

Activated carbon is used to adsorb PFAS (a general term for organic fluorine compounds such as PFOA and PFOS) in water. Takizawa emphasized that activated carbon is useful for removing PFAS.

“Recently, there have been reports in the news that PFAS have been detected in rivers and groundwater in various parts of Japan at concentrations that exceed national standards.”

“The United States has been quick to strengthen regulations on PFAS, and new, more stringent regulations are expected to be enacted within this year. In this regard, water purification systems using activated carbon are attracting particular attention as being extremely effective in removing PFAS.”

Just over two weeks after this lecture, on October 16, 2023, contamination of Kibichuo Town’s tap water was discovered.

Takizawa is the person who can explain PFAS and Kuraray’s activated carbon business to investors. The written responses to Tansa so far have been given as the “IR/PR Department” and he is the person in charge there.

On September 11, 2024, I requested a face-to-face interview with Takizawa through the IR/PR Department.

Why do they assert, “our company’s involvement is very minimal”?

Let’s review Kuraray’s claims from its written response dated June 18, 2024.

From 2008 to 2023, Man-ei Industry left PFOA-containing activated carbon in the town’s property ward. Regarding this activated carbon, Kuraray believes that “our company’s involvement is very minimal.” The main reasons given are as follows:

“Since 2004, we have outsourced the recycling of used activated carbon to Man-ei Industry. The transaction is that Man-ei Industry removes chemical substances such as PFOA and returns the activated carbon to Kuraray. Therefore, there is no way that the activated carbon that Kuraray outsourced to be recycled would be left abandoned in the town’s property ward.”

“In addition to the recycling contract, we also sold used activated carbon to Man-ei Industry. Since this is a sale, Kuraray does not collect the activated carbon. The activated carbon was sold in 2007, 2013-2015, and 2021-2022. The amount sold was 10 tons in 2007, and several hundred tons in the other years.”

“But the 10 tons sold in 2007 was activated carbon that absorbed chemicals in drinking water. There’s no way it contained high levels of PFAS.”

“Since 2010, we have been storing our used activated carbon stocks indoors to prevent PFAS from leaking into the soil.”

This series of responses provides little basis for denying that the activated carbon that caused the contamination was “not handed over by Kuraray.”

First, I want to focus on the activated carbon that was commissioned for recycling.

It is unclear how long it took for the activated carbon to be collected after it was handed over to Man-ei Industry. If it took a long time to collect, it is possible that the activated carbon that was placed in the property ward and leaked PFOA into the soil was the one entrusted by Kuraray.

When it comes to the explanation of the activated carbon they sold, they are rather sloppy.

1. Although the sales amount in 2007 was stated as “10 tons,” for 2013-2015 and 2021-2022 the figure was only quoted as “several hundred tons.”

2. The 10 tons from 2007 are claimed to “contain high levels of PFAS” because they are activated carbon that absorbs chemicals in drinking water. But have they actually measured the PFAS concentration in the activated carbon? There have been cases where high levels of PFAS were detected in activated carbon at water purification plants, such as in Chatan Town, Okinawa Prefecture.

3. Regarding the hundreds of tons sold in 2013-2015 and 2021-2022, they have not given any reason why they are not the activated carbon that caused the contamination in Kibichuo Town. The claim that PFAS would not leak into the soil because it has been stored indoors since 2010 refers to the inventory management on Kuraray’s premises before sales. It is irrelevant.

In order to clarify the above questions, I requested an interview with Takizawa through the IR/PR Department, but have not received a reply.

So on September 17th, I obtained Takizawa’s personal email address and contacted him to request an interview.

Shinichi Takizawa, head of IR/PR, declined to be interviewed

On September 18th, the day after the email was sent to Takizawa personally, a response was received through the IR/PR Department.

We have received a request for a face-to-face interview, and we would like to provide additional explanation regarding some of the points in our previous response that were not clear enough and some points that have come to light through subsequent investigations.

The first thing Kuraray mentioned was the used activated carbon from 2013 onwards. Until now, Kuraray had only mentioned transactions from 2007, despite having a track record of transactions with Man-ei Industry spanning several years.

Regarding sales since 2013, we would like to add that the source of the used carbon delivered to the company has never used it to remove high concentrations of PFAS, and no used activated carbon containing high concentrations of PFAS has been delivered to the company.

The used activated carbon that Kuraray sold to Man-ei Industry was used by another company. However, the party that brought the activated carbon to Kuraray had no intention of using it to remove high concentrations of PFAS. Therefore, the logic goes, there is no way that Kuraray would have sold activated carbon containing high concentrations of PFAS to Man-ei Industry.

This is puzzling.

First of all, what led the user of activated carbon to determine that it “did not intend to remove high concentrations of PFAS”?

Above all, the issue is not intent, but whether the activated carbon actually contained high levels of PFAS.

To resolve this issue, it is necessary to understand which company used the activated carbon and what kind of investigation Kuraray has conducted into this incident.

However, Kuraray went on to state:

Please note that we will refrain from answering questions regarding the details of individual transactions.

This is also puzzling. This is a serious issue of water pollution. They have already responded to the details of the individual transactions with Man-ei Industry.

The final conclusion was as follows:

Regarding the recent high concentration PFOA contamination of tap water in Kibichuo Town, our company has no involvement, and the above response will serve as a substitute for a face-to-face interview.

 

Thank you for understanding.

Rather than ending with a one-sided assertion, they needed to have my questions answered. I sent questions again to the IR/PR Department and to Takizawa personally with a one-week deadline for responses.

The deadline passed and there was no response. I contacted the IR/PR Department and Takizawa again.

But it has been ignored up until now.

“Since our founding, we have consistently addressed environmental issues head-on”

The possibility remains that both Kuraray and Osaka Gas Chemicals, which I reported on previously, handed over the PFOA-containing activated carbon that was the source of the contamination to Man-ei Industry. No other companies have been named as of now.

This is simply an attempt to avoid responsibility. What if the company itself was the cause of serious water pollution? It seems that they are hesitant to investigate the matter out of fear of this.

Kuraray’s IR/PR Director, Takizawa, also said the following at an online seminar for investors:

“Since our founding, we have consistently addressed social and environmental issues head-on, and this has led to the originality and challenging spirit of the Kuraray Group today.”

 To be continued.

A road leading to the property ward that was the source of contamination, in Kibichuo Town, Okayama Prefecture (photo by Nanami Nakagawa on May 30, 2024.)

(Originally published in Japanese on October 22, 2024. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

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