Greenpeace Japan protest outside the second day of the "International Whaling Comission Normalization Meeting".
"When I arrived at Greenpeace Japan a little over one year ago,
my take on stopping the Japanese government's whaling program was
that it is a lost cause and impossible to argue against - despite
the fact I had been opposed to whaling since the issue was raised
in the early 1970s.
"Japanese media and the public have been force fed the
government's line"
Why? Because the Japanese media and public have been force fed
the government's line on high seas whaling for decades, with a
complete absence of debate between opposing views. For years, our
government has been telling us that whaling is an essential part of
Japanese culture and diet, and those who oppose whaling are
anti-Japanese. In doing so, the government has managed to spin
this issue into one of nationalism, equating the "anti-whaling"
movement as "anti-Japanese," which is simply not true.
That's why Greenpeace Japan, with the full support of the
worldwide Greenpeace community, has launched a new campaign in
Japan to spark the debate on whaling in our country, and to show
Japanese that anti-whaling activists actually love Japan, but not
its high seas whaling program. To that end, we've launched "Whale Love
Wagon,": a take off of a popular Japanese television show,
where a Spanish man and a Japanese woman travel around Japan
asking questions and talking with people about whaling. Greenpeace
has taken a 'hands-off' approach to the actual development of the
events in each episode to insure that the travelers explore the
issue on their own.
Whale Love WagonEpisode 1
"Equating the anti-whaling movement as anti-Japanese is simply
not true"
And it's working - for the first time ever there is public
debate about whaling in Japan, and it's completely independent of
our government's spin.
Greenpeace Japan is committed to catalyzing an honest,
transparent and completely unedited debate about Japanese whaling,
even if the debate enters territory that some may find
uncomfortable or disturbing A case in point is talking with people
who still eat whale meat, albeit very rarely. The point is to
expose the Japanese government's spin that whale meat is an
essential part of Japanese diet and culture. The truth is that
whale meat is no longer a staple in the Japanese diet, and indeed,
95 percent of Japanese have never or rarely even eat it.
At the same time, Greenpeace is working in over forty countries
around the world to send the message, "We love Japan, but not high
seas whaling" to the Japanese public.
Just last week, valentines messages of love, chocolate and flowers
were sent from Greenpeace supporters in 28 countries to
Japan.
"Once Japanese whaling is exposed for what it is...the Japanese
public will put an end to it"
The key to ending Japanese whaling lies in the hearts and minds
of the Japanese people. That's why Greenpeace is running a
strategic campaign in Japan so that the Japanese public can have a
transparent, honest and uncensored debate on whaling. Once
Japanese whaling is exposed for what it is - a practice that only a
handful of bureaucrats, politicians and spokespeople profit from -
the Japanese public will put an end to it, once and for all."
Jun Hoshikawa
Executive Director
Greenpeace JapanEsperanza weblog
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