A Japanese daily raised concerns over Tokyo's impending decision to release radioactive water from the country's disabled Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.

In an editorial published on Wednesday, The Tokyo Shimbun stressed that water treated under the multi-nuclide-removing Advanced Liquid Processing System(ALPS) still contains tritium, and even several other radioactive materials.

The paper also took issue with Tokyo's position that it will dilute the water before discharge to ensure that the level of contamination is below legal standards, saying nobody can predict the long-term effect of the continued release.

The editorial then referred to Minamata disease, first discovered in the Japanese city of the same name in 1956, after a chemical factory repeatedly released methylmercury in the industrial wastewater between 1932 and 1968.

The neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning was suffered by local residents who consumed the toxic chemical as it bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish. Symptoms included damage to vision, hearing and speech, paralysis, coma and death in extreme cases.

The editorial urged the Japanese government to also consider the positions of countries that share the ocean and not to rush into the process without presenting detailed regulatory and inspection measures.