FlexiLingo
Minamata | Japan's Cover-Up That Poisoned Generations
A quiet fishing town. Cats dancing themselves to death on the wharf. And a company that knew exactly why. This is what happens when companies choose profit over people. This week we're covering the Minamata incident: how a chemical company called Chisso spent decades dumping mercury into the waters of Minamata Bay, poisoning fish, animals, and eventually thousands of people, including children. We're tracing the cover-up, the corporate and government betrayal, the fight for justice that dragged on for decades, and the resilience of the Minamata community that refused to be forgotten. ⚠️ Trigger warning: this episode discusses death, child loss...
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B2 · Upper-intermediate
Comfortable if you already follow TV news
- 83% of the words are B1 or easier.
- 124 words a minute: slow, clear speech.
- 160 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.
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Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.
began shaking a few weeks ago.
,
inside their skin, their muscles contracting and jerking them this way and that.
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Is this episode right for you?
B2 · Upper-intermediate
Comfortable if you already follow TV news
- 83% of the words are B1 or easier.
- 124 words a minute: slow, clear speech.
- 160 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.
Transcript
The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.
harder words (B2+)
You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. You notice the illness first in the harbor cats that roam around the sleepy fishing town your family has lived in for generations. While they still mewed for a piece of the fisherman's catch, their wiry little bodies
began shaking a few weeks ago. Just a little tremor at first, but the tremors continued until their bones seemed to rattle inside their skin, their muscles contracting and jerking them this way and that. After the frenzy dance reached its climax, they died.
A bad omen, if you've ever seen one. But it's only one of many. Crows had been dropping from the sky, the seaweed had disappeared, and so did the fish. It's hard to hold back this fear, this foreboding that something is very wrong.
That was the opening. The rest of the episode (36 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.
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