Research whaling constitutes a real test of Japanese democracy - Greenpeace

[Annces]

Japanese public hoodwinked on whaling

By Jun Hoshikawa, executive director, Greenpeace Japan


It's time we moved past relying on external pressure brought to bear by the governments and NGOs of such countries as the US, Britain, France and Australia, and sought a resolution by way of the Japanese themselves. Japanese taxpayers and voters must engage in a rigorous debate with the Japanese Government.

No matter how much the Japanese Government emphasises the legality of this program, the perception that Japan is engaged in quasi-commercial whaling - by taking advantage of a loophole in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling - remains. In today's world of natural science, the use of lethal methods for researching wild animals is limited to cases that are absolutely essential.

When Norwegian-style modern whaling, based on the use of power-driven vessels and whaling guns, was introduced in the Meiji era, most Japanese fishermen were opposed to the indiscriminate killing of whales, which they regarded as deities of the sea and which helped to corral fish.

Can whaling that entails travelling as far as the Antarctic Ocean to shoot whales dead, before hauling them aboard mother ships where workers engage in assembly-line processes to cut up and freeze the whales, really be a reflection of Japan's traditional culture? The research whaling program costs 500 million yen ($A5 million) of taxpayer-funded subsidies each year. Since 1994, Japan has spent almost 100 billion yen attracting votes for the support of whaling at the International Whaling Commission.

As international opinion advocating a review of research whaling continues to build there is no real prospect for a resumption of commercial whaling as desired by the Japanese Government. This represents a failure of official policy. Members of the Japanese media, who are supposed to keep the Government in check, tend to accept without question the assertions of the Fisheries Agency, whose position is consistently one that leans towards self-justification.

Research whaling constitutes a real test of Japanese democracy.


http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23155612-5007146,00.html

[flvegan]

1. Not to mention 500 million yen to obtain a product they can't sell.