 One patient's hair was found to have a mercury level of 390 ppm.On 31 May, he reported an outbreak of organic mercury poisoning in the Agano River basin to the prefectural government and made his findings public on 12 June.Throughout 1965 and 1966, researchers from the Kumamoto University Research Group (that had been set up to investigate the original outbreak) and Dr. Hajime Hosokawa (the former Chisso hospital director) brought their significant experience from Minamata and applied it to the Niigata outbreak.