After Shozo TANAKA made direct appeals to the government, popular opinion changed in the residents' favor as many groups of college students visited Ashio one after another, and the government, realizing it could become a threat, hastily set up the second Research Committee of the Mining Pollution in 1902.
田中正造の直訴後、学生が相次いで団体で足尾見学に向かうなど、世論の盛り上がりにあわてた政府は、1902年に第二次鉱毒調査委員会を設置した。