Greenpeace Japan members Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the Tokyo Two, have been found guilty of stealing 23 kilograms of whale meat (worth 59,000 yen, or $725) from a depot in April 2008. They were sentenced to a suspended one-year prison term Tuesday. They stole the meat in order to bring publicity to the issue.
Japan banned commercial whaling in 1986 in accordance to an international moratorium on whaling. It resumed whaling in 1987 in accordance to a loophole in that moratorium that allowed whaling for scientific purposes. Despite individuals’ personal feelings about the morality of whaling, the issue damages Tokyo’s international relations in that it shows how the government doesn’t hold up its end of an international agreement. Since the fishing industry is highly subsidized in Japan–and once the government begins subsidizing a program, it is virtually impossible to take money away–this issue probably won’t go away soon.
Below is an argument against Japanese whaling by Jun Hoshikawa, executive director of Greenpeace Japan, reprinted from a June 19, 2009, article in the Daily Yomiuri that I think is a rational argument against whaling, even if Tokyo won’t listen to him.
Jun Hoshikawa / Executive director, Greenpeace Japan
For decades, Japan has exploited a loophole in the International Whaling Commission and masqueraded its clearly commercial hunt as a “scientific research” operation. Over 10,000 whales have been killed to date, but only a handful of studies have ever been published. The meat produced is not even widely consumed, with thousands of tons piling up in freezers year after year, and as it does, it is Japanese taxpayers who foot the bill.
This industry, which relentlessly damages Japan’s international reputation, drains the public purse by about 1 billion yen every year–and that is only looking at subsidies for the Institute of Cetacean Research. The ICR has an operating budget of 828 million yen after operating expenses, yet it spends 602 million yen on public relations, and only 214 million yen on its discredited “science.”
Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the Tokyo Two, shone a light on this waste of taxpayer money when they exposed a scandal within the whaling industry in 2008. After a thorough, four-month investigation into whistle-blower accusations of embezzlement in the industry, the two were able to intercept tangible evidence in the form of a box containing 23.5 kilograms of salted whale meat. The box was given to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office with an appeal for an investigation. Greenpeace presented a large body of evidence revealing widespread embezzlement of high quality whale meat by crew on the Nisshin Maru and evidence that whale meat was being sent to industry executives and even government officials.
Sato and Suzuki showed how whale meat would regularly be illegally taken off the ship and sold on the black market. An insider claimed that one crew member built a house from the proceeds. However, instead of conducting a full investigation into this crime, the prosecutors dropped the case and Sato and Suzuki were arrested instead.
They are now on trial and facing a custodial sentence for “theft” and “trespassing,” while those who took large volumes of costly whale meat, the hunt for which is paid for by public funds, walk free. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that Sato and Suzuki’s rights to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to investigate government corruption have been violated in this case. U.N. High Commissioner Navanethem Pillay also raised similar concerns about the case during her recent visit to Japan.
Japan’s whaling industry has a negative impact on the environment, the economy, taxpayers and Japan’s international reputation. The politically motivated prosecution of Sato and Suzuki also is doing significant harm to Japanese civil society. It does not have to be this way, and we now have before us an opportunity to solve this issue for the benefit of all, once and for all.
This year, at the International Whaling Commission, world leaders will again have the chance to bring an end to the whale hunt that is damaging Japan’s international image.
Greenpeace is urging a deal at this year’s IWC meeting that results in an end to Southern Ocean whaling as a step toward the end of all commercial whaling. Created by the IWC in 1994, the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was designated to protect whales and allow vulnerable species to recover. Japan’s whale hunt in the Southern Ocean is a direct violation of the sanctuary’s purpose and must end.
Whaling in the sanctuary also puts Antarctic waters at unnecessary risk. Antarctica’s waters are a pristine environment that merit protection, as the rough conditions and icy waters make accidents and fuel spills more likely than in other parts of the world.
Japan should respect the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary along with the international efforts and guidance by the IWC. Reform of the IWC is what is needed internationally, but what is needed in Japan is a rational discussion of whaling and Japan’s lack of consideration for international consensus. Despite what is often repeated in the media, this is not an issue of culture or tradition, of east versus west, or the right to exploit the ocean commons. It is about adhering to international conservation agreements our government has signed.
As the host of the upcoming meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity this October, Japan has a great deal to learn about respecting the world’s oceans and the life contained in them. The government-backed whaling program that has already cost us billions of yen and continually harms Japan’s international image only undermines its credibility as host to a U.N. biodiversity meeting this autumn.
Instead of prosecuting activists, the Japanese government should be working with us and other NGOs to protect the oceans we so heavily rely upon now, and for future generations.
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For other viewpoints on the controversy, see the responses from Japan Fisheries Agency counselor Joji Morishita who give a (flimsy) argument about the legality of Japanese whaling (http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/commentary/20100625dy02.htm); Nagano University Tourism and Environmental Studies professor Tetsu Sato, who sees the issue in a cross-cultural context (http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/commentary/20100625dy04.htm); and Tokai University School of Marine Science and Technology professor Yoshihiko Yamada who (idiotically) argues that whaling is key to ocean management (http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/commentary/20100625dy05.htm).
