TOKYO – Hollywood actor Johnny Depp on Tuesday met with an emblematic victim of Minamata mercury-poisoning disease while visiting Tokyo after starring in a 2020 film about the pollution case that devastated a town in southwestern Japan.
“I did not choose to get Minamata disease,” said Shinobu Sakamoto, 69, who has a congenital form of the illness. “I want the world to understand. (The suffering) has not ended.”
Depp responded by saying, “I would love to help in any way.”
The two conversed for about 15 minutes via an interpreter, with Depp expressing the desire to visit Minamata in Kumamoto Prefecture after Sakamoto urged him to do so.
Sakamoto presented Depp with a photo of herself with her name inscribed, while Depp gave her a signed card saying, “With all my respect and love.”
In the film “Minamata,” Depp portrayed the late American photographer Eugene Smith who documented the devastation of the town of the same name. The film was released in Japan in 2021.
The meeting was arranged by Smith’s former wife Aileen Mioko Smith.
According to Aileen, the film includes a scene where a woman confronts the president of the firm responsible for causing Minamata disease. This woman is modeled after Sakamoto’s mother, Fujie, who died in 2019.
Depp is in Japan for advance screenings of a new film he has directed.
