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Teen anti-whaling activist, Skye Bortoli, hands over The Daily Telegraph petition to Nobutaka Tsutsui, director of the fisheries and agriculture committee for The Democratic party of Japan.
Enlarge imageMore than 131,000 Australians signed our anti-whaling petition, championed by the Daily Telegraph and Channel 9 Today Show. Fifteen-year-old Skye Bortoli, from Teens Against Whaling, presented it to Japanese authorities in Tokyo. Immediately afterwards, the opposition Japanese Democratic Party (DPJ) called a committee meeting on whaling.
Voice of the people in Japan
"We are here to present you with 131,965 signatures," Ms Bortoli told Nobutaka Tsutsui, director of the DPJ's fisheries and agriculture committee. "We hope you will reconsider your position on whaling".
Accepting the petition was quite a victory itself. Past international efforts have been totally rejected. Mr Tsutsui said, "Our stance is not the same as yours but we are willing to consider the issue seriously."
Citing cultural traditions and food security concerns, the 10-strong DPJ committee said they supported commercial whaling in the high seas and in coastal Japanese waters. But, in a major concession, they also admitted the market for whale meat was not viable and that Japan's international reputation was at stake.
Greenpeace Japan's whale project leader, Junichi Sato, says it was significant that the party agreed to the discussion. "They are prepared to hear the voice from Australia, which I think is really important."
The DPJ is Japan's leading opposition party. It won an historic victory in July 2007 by securing power in the Diet (upper house) with the chance of taking power from the Liberal Democratic Party for the first time in 55 years at upcoming general elections.
Surprising survey results
A new Greenpeace-commissioned opinion poll reveals that nearly 71 per cent of Japanese people don’t support their country's whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Astonishingly, 87 per cent were surprised to learn that their tax money was being used to subsidise the whaling operation.
Why we work in Japan
To end whaling for good we must mobilise people in Japan to show their government that they are opposed to whaling and don’t want their tax dollars spent on an ageing fleet that uses fake science to justify a hunt for whale meat that nobody wants to eat.
