Noriaki Tsuchimoto was a distinguished Japanese documentary film-maker whose work displayed a consistent political commitment. He was best known for an extensive series of films tracing the impact of Minamata disease, the form of mercury poisoning that was one of the most notorious side effects of Japan’s postwar economic development.

A chemical plant run by the Chisso Corporation had been emptying waste water containing mercury into the sea near the town of Minamata on the southern island of Kyushu. Absorbed by the fish, which were the staple diet of the locals, the mercury built up to dangerous levels in human tissues, causing muscular weakness, brain damage and death. Later a number of disfigured and mentally handicapped children were born in the area. Tsuchimoto’s 1971 film, Minamata: The Victims and Their World, juxtaposed footage of the victims and their campaign for compensation with depictions of the traditional lifestyles threatened by industrialisation.

Tsuchimoto’s political commitment dated back to his youth. Born in Gifu prefecture in central Japan, but raised in Tokyo, he joined the Japanese Communist Party after entering Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University in 1946. His career in film was shaped by his acquaintance with Seiji Yoshino, a cinematographer who served on the board of the respected Iwanami Productions. Tsuchimoto entered the company, working initially on promotional films, before raising funds independently to make, Chua Swee Lin (Exchange Student) in 1965, about the prejudice faced by a Malaysian-Chinese student at a Japanese university. He subsequently made Prehistory of the Partisans (1969), a portrait of student extremists.

His later work included films on Japan’s reliance on nuclear energy. Robbing of the Sea: Shimokita Peninsula (1984), again about a traditional community threatened by progress. With Afghan Spring (1989), Tsuchimoto widened his focus to the international arena. Working in collaboration with his compatriot, Hiroko Kumagai, and Afghan film-maker, Abdul Latif, he examined society and politics in Afghanistan af the time of the Soviet withdrawal. The film now serves as a valuable record of a culture partially destroyed soon after by the Taleban regime.

Nevertheless, Tsuchimoto will be remembered primarily for his Minamata films. In 1996 he worked on an exhibition entitled Minamata-Tokyo, for which he gathered more than a thousand photographs of deceased victims.

Tsuchimoto’s first wife predeceased him. He is survived by his second wife, Motoko, and by a daughter from his first marriage.

Noriaki Tsuchimoto, film-maker, was born on December 11, 1928. He died on June 24, 2008, aged 79