On board an inflatable boat running parallel to the giant
factory ship, Greenpeace Japan whales campaigner
Sakyo Noda held the Japanese kanji symbol "偽"
("nise"), meaning "fake", next to the word "RESEARCH" which has
been painted by the Japanese Fisheries Agency on the Nishim Maru's
hull. Reflecting a growing disquiet in Japanese society, "偽"
was voted the best kanji symbol of the year for 2008. Its
choice reflects recent food mislabeling scandals, problems over
political funds and faulty pension records. Greenpeace Japan is now
using it to show that the use of taxpayers money to fund
"scientific" whaling is yet another government scandal.
Due to self-censorship, until recently the whaling issue has not
been given much attention in the Japanese news media. Being against
whaling was thought to be against Japanese culture. This created a
"whalers' sanctuary" inside Japanese society that protected a small
number of bureaucrats, whalers and politicians who have vested
interests in whaling -- all at the expense of the taxpayer. But
finally things are changing, as
the truth is beginning to hit home.
Today, one of Japan's leading newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun, called into
question the validity of the whaling program by asking "Why is the
Japanese government so insistent on engaging in whaling?" The
report cited concerns about the use of taxpayers' money, dubious
science, the lack of interest from the fishing industry in
supporting the whaling program and the fact that former employees
of the Japanese government Fisheries Agency were "parachuted" into
key (and well paid) roles in the supposedly independent Institute
of Cetacean Research - the agency which commissions the whaling
fleet.
For many years the Japan Fisheries Agency has claimed that
whaling is integral to Japanese culture. Yet when shown pictures of
modern whaling in the Southern Ocean, complete with factory ships
and grenade tipped harpoons, Japanese people don't recognise
anything traditional about it. In fact, modern whaling methods
were introduced by the U.S. after World War II as a means of
addressing food shortages.
Further, a survey conducted by the Nippon Research Center, in
2006, showed that over 95 percent of the public had never or very
rarely eaten whale meat. It also found that 90 percent of Japanese
people had no idea their government hunted whales in the Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and once they were aware of it, 69 percent
disagreed with it.
Today, Japan has over 4000 tons of frozen whale meat in storage,
and despite the government's attempts to make eating it part of
Japanese culture, the public just aren't interested.
Take Action: Urge President Bush to tell Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda to put away Japan’s harpoons.
Japanese whalers are in the midst of a killing spree. They are in the Southern Ocean with their sights set on killing up to 1,000 whales! We need the White House to step up diplomatic efforts to get Japan to recall their whaling fleet and end their illegal and unnecessary whaling operations once and for all.