ABSTRACT
Hagino and Kono reported about the Itai-itai disease at the 17th meeting of Nihon-RinshoGekai-Kai (The Japanese Society of Clinical Surgeons) in 1955, making the first official use of the name.(Kato and Kawano, 1968). The same year, Hagino reported on the disease at the 9th
Hokuriku Medical Congress (Hagino, 1969). In 1961, Hagino and Yoshioka reported that heavy metals, especially cadmium, would play an important part as etiological factors of the disease (Kato and Kawano, 1968). Epidemiological and clinical studies were started on a larger scale in the 1960's by groups supported by the Japanese government. The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1968 declared, "The Itai-itai disease is caused by chronic cadmium poisoning, on condition of the existence of such inducing factors as pregnancy, lactation, unbalanced internal secretion, aging, deficiency of calcium, etc."
