From the left, Daikin Industries’ Naofumi Takenaka (President and COO) and Yoshiyuki Hiraga (Senior Executive Officer/Chemical Business, Chemical Environment and Safety) = From the official website of Daikin Industries, Ltd.

On June 27, 2025, Daikin Industries’ 122nd general shareholders’ meeting was held at a hotel in Osaka.

Health damage caused by PFOA was only discovered two months prior at Daikin Yodogawa Plant in Settsu City, Osaka Prefecture, where PFOA was manufactured. Researchers from Kyoto University and doctors have identified interstitial lung disease among workers engaged in PFOA manufacturing. They have published the findings in a scientific paper.

However, Daikin made a firm statement at its shareholders’ meeting that day.

“We are not aware of any health hazards caused by PFOA.”

The PFOA contamination of the area surrounding the Yodogawa Plant has not been resolved at all. Concerns about awareness of the contamination and countermeasures were raised by shareholders.

Daikin gave only deceptive answers. Tansa has obtained a recording of the general meeting of shareholders and will report in detail.

“There have been no reports of health effects”

In April 2025, a research team consisting of researchers from Kyoto University and doctors reported on the health damage suffered by Daikin employees in the occupational health scientific journal “Industrial Health.”

The research team conducted blood tests and health surveys and found that three Daikin employees were suffering from interstitial lung disease, a condition that causes fibrosis in the lungs, making breathing difficult and, in the worst cases, leading to death.

The three employees have two things in common: they all have high levels of PFOA in their blood, and they all worked at the Yodogawa Plant, where PFOA was manufactured.

The research team points out that “interstitial lung disease develops 20 to 30 years after exposure to PFOA, so there are likely still many victims.”

Nonetheless, Yoshiyuki Hiraga, an executive in charge of the chemical business, had this to say about the health hazards to employees:

“Our company conducts regular health checkups every year, and we tell our employees that if they have any health concerns or worries at that time, they should consult with the company or an industrial physician. To date, there have been no reports of health effects. Therefore, we are not aware of any health hazards caused by PFOA at present.”

The paper published in “Industrial Health” was not mentioned at the shareholders’ meeting, but when Tansa sent Daikin a letter of inquiry, the company responded as follows:

“We were not involved in the creation of the paper in question and are not familiar with the details of its analytical methods or accuracy, so we will refrain from commenting on this series of questions.”

They are not refuting the paper, but rather avoiding expressing a position.

Citing the sloppy report by Okayama University Professor as a source

Meanwhile, Daikin cited research at its shareholders meeting that it had no involvement in creating.

These are the results of a blood test conducted on residents of Kibichuo Town, Okayama Prefecture.

In Kibichuo Town, PFOA levels of 800 to 1,400 ng/L were found in the tap water over the three-year period from 2020 to 2023. This is 28 times the national guideline value. In response to complaints from residents, the town conducted blood tests on 709 residents who requested them.

In May 2025, Professor Takashi Yorifuji of Okayama University spoke at a mid-term report meeting on the results of the analysis, which compared the results of questionnaires filled out by people who had drunk tap water contaminated with PFOA with those who had not.

“No clear differences were observed.”

However, there were several problems with his report.

For example, people who had regularly consumed PFOA-contaminated water over a three-year period were grouped together with people who had consumed PFOA-contaminated water at least once.

For the incidence of testicular cancer, one of the health effects of PFOA, data for women were included in the denominator.

Nevertheless, Hiraga stated in front of shareholders:

“With the assistance of Okayama University, Kibichuo Town in Okayama Prefecture recently performed blood tests on its residents. The town published a mid-term assessment on the associated health effects, indicating that no distinct markers for PFOA, a form of PFAS, were discovered. We have recognized this through a few media reports.

Why are they not adopting the peer-reviewed, published research results on interstitial lung disease, and instead using the sloppy “mid-term report” from Okayama University?

President Naofumi Takenaka and Osaka Prefecture have different claims

There is significant contamination in the vicinity of the Yodogawa Plant. The groundwater in Settsu City and the nearby Higashiyodogawa Ward of Osaka City has the highest levels of PFOA in the nation. Questions have been raised by shareholders about the countermeasures.

However, before even mentioning any countermeasures, President Naofumi Takenaka tried to evade responsibility for the contamination. Daikin only admitted that it was “one of the causes of the contamination.”

“As PFOA was manufactured and used in the past, we recognize that we are one of the causes of the detection of PFOA in the groundwater around the Yodogawa Plant, and we are working to address the issue in consultation with Osaka Prefecture and Settsu City.”

However, in June 2022, the Osaka Prefectural Office Guidance Division told Tansa that “Yodogawa Plant was the primary cause.” They explained that Daikin, Settsu City, and Osaka Prefecture have been holding discussions since 2009 to find a solution.

What President Takenaka was saying at the shareholders meeting was that Osaka Prefecture, which has supervisory authority over Daikin, was misinterpreting the facts.

Discharge of treated water with unknown concentration

Daikin is trying to avoid its responsibility for the pollution, even going against the views of Osaka Prefecture. Naturally, Daikin’s pollution control efforts will be insufficient.

At the shareholders’ meeting, the “PFOA countermeasures” that President Takenaka mentioned were all measures that local residents had previously pointed out as “not really countermeasures.”

The first is about PFOA groundwater on the factory site.

“As a measure to address the PFOA contained in the groundwater within the Yodogawa Plant site, in consultation with Osaka Prefecture and Settsu City, we have newly constructed and upgraded wastewater treatment facilities to purify PFOA, and have been pumping and purifying groundwater while also increasing the amount of water pumped.”

Daikin gave a similar explanation at its general shareholders meeting last year, saying it would pump out the high-concentration PFOA water that had accumulated underground on its premises, treat it, and release it into the sewer system.

Nonetheless, Daikin has not disclosed the PFOA concentration in the treated water, and has stubbornly refused to do so despite requests from local residents and Osaka Prefecture.

Therefore, it is unclear whether the water is being sufficiently purified before being discharged.

PFOA concentration increased 600 times higher than the national guideline after the impermeable wall was installed

The second “PFOA countermeasure” is the installation of an impermeable wall. This involves driving an impermeable wall into the ground around the perimeter of the site to prevent the high-concentration PFOA water underground from leaking outside the site.

President Takenaka explains.

“From 2022, as an additional measure, and taking into account the opinions of experts, we considered installing an impermeable wall to prevent groundwater from leaking outside the Yodogawa Plant site, and began construction of the wall in 2023.”

What was crucially missing from President Takenaka’s explanation was the effect of installing the impermeable wall. He didn’t mention it at all. Why?

In fact, the effectiveness of the impermeable wall has not been found.

In a well outside the site, located a few metres from where the impermeable wall was installed, PFOA concentrations have actually increased, for unknown reasons.

As of August 2022, before the impermeable wash was installed, the concentration was 21,000 ng/L.

However, after the impermeable wall was installed in August 2024, the concentration rose to 30,000ng/L, about 1.4 times the level before the wall was installed and 600 times the national guideline value.

Public information session that only the neighborhood association president can attend

President Takenaka’s deception continues.

“From the perspective of dialogue with local residents, we have held public information sessions for local residents and created opportunities for dialogue with neighboring residents.”

It sounds as if public information sessions were held where any local resident could attend, providing a forum for dialogue.

However, the reality is different.

Only the presidents of local neighborhood associations in the areas surrounding the Yodogawa Plant were allowed to attend the “information session” that President Takenaka mentioned.

Furthermore, Daikin restricted the sharing of information by including a warning in the materials distributed at the meetings that stated, “Please refrain from distributing or sharing with anyone outside of the neighborhood association.”

A local resident who was familiar with the situation attended the shareholders’ meeting and pointed out the following:

“Local residents have firmly stated that this was not a public information session.”

Tansa interviewed Yoshimitsu Nakamura, who has experience attending the information session as the head of a local neighborhood association.

“I’ve attended three or four information sessions, but all they talked about was the cleanup of the factory grounds. The main point should be that PFOA was dumped into a local irrigation channel that leads to the fields, but they wouldn’t answer any questions about that.”

Norihito Hozumi, the president of local residents’ associations, who also attended the information session, said, “In any case, Daikin’s current method is out of date. Let’s start by sitting down at the table to discuss the matter. This is what the local community wants.”

Hiraga, the executive in charge of the chemical business, also touched on future communication with residents.

“We also plan to set up a new consultation desk dedicated for local residents.”

President Takenaka emphasized this further.

“This is being done to further strengthen our relationship of trust with the local community and ensure smooth communication.”

However, this consultation desk is designed to deal with residents individually, and they declined to mention whether they would hold public meetings where residents could attend as a group and pressure Daikin to take action.

UN highlights Polluter Pays Principle of Daikin

Daikin currently manufactures and uses PFAS, which is not subject to legal regulations, at its Yodogawa Plant.

President Takenaka made the following statement regarding fluorine materials including PFAS.

“We will continue to comply with regulations and supply scientifically evaluated fluorine materials.”

However, Japan’s regulations on PFOA and other PFAS have not kept up with those of Western countries. It is dangerous to continue manufacturing PFAS under these lax regulations.

Instead, the company should first seriously address the health damage that it has already caused to PFOA manufacturing workers, as well as the contamination surrounding its Yodogawa Plant.

When it comes to chemical pollution, there is the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP).

The United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights visited Japan in the summer of 2023. After investigating PFOA contamination by Daikin, they reported as follows:

“We would like to highlight the responsibility of the businesses involved to address this issue as required under the UNGP (Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights) and the polluter pays principle.”

(Originally published in Japanese on June 27, 2025. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

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