News Releases from Headquarters›Office of the Administrator (AO)

EPA Administrator Traveling to Toyama, Japan for G7 Environment Ministers’ Meeting

Also Visiting Minamata to Discuss Global Commitment to Reducing Mercury Pollution

WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy will travel to Japan on May 15-16 to participate in the G7 Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Toyama. She will also travel to Minamata on May 17 to show continued support for the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global agreement the United States signed in 2013 to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.

While in Toyama, Administrator McCarthy will participate in the G7 Environment Ministers’ Meeting with other Group of Seven environment ministers to discuss the direction of future climate and environmental policy. She will also hold multiple bilateral meetings, including with Japan, the host nation.

Following the conclusion of the G7 Environment Ministers’ Meeting, Administrator McCarthy will travel to Minamata, Japan to highlight U.S-Japanese cooperation on reducing global mercury pollution. While in Minamata, she will tour the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum and the cleaned up Minamata Bay, and meet with Japan’s National Institute for Minamata Disease. She will also speak to students at Kumamoto Prefectural Minamata High School, a local high school recognized for its sustainability efforts.

EPA’s bilateral relationship with Japan is rooted in a 40-year history of cooperation on environmental issues that dates back to a 1975 Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection between the U.S. and Japan.

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