Press release - 31 March, 2012
Tokyo, Japan, 31 March 2012 – As Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet returned to port this morning, Greenpeace Japan Executive Director Junichi Sato said: “Japan’s disgraced whaling fleet has once again returned to Japan from its shameful, taxpayer-funded hunt in the Southern Ocean. The fleet killed 267 whales for a market that does not exist, and it only managed to escape its mounting debts this season by appallingly siphoning off US$30 million in taxpayer money away from the victims of the tragic March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.”
“The expeditions make no scientific sense (1), and whaling company executives have admitted that the sales of whale meat cannot cover the costs of the whaling programme so they do not make any economic sense either,” said Sato. “The simple truth is the market for whale meat in Japan is collapsing (2) and the industry cannot even remotely cover its costs, much less justify the billions of yen being squandered on it.”
“The economy is tanking, hundreds of thousands of people are struggling to rebuild their lives and protect their families from radiation: enough is enough. There are far more important things to be spending public money on,” said Sato. “Greenpeace calls on the Government of Japan to end its subsidy for this hunt and to end whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.”
ENDS
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment, and to promote peace. Greenpeace is opposed to commercial whaling in all of the world’s oceans.
Contacts:
Greg McNevin, Greenpeace International Communications, 
, +82 10 4836 3224
Yuki Sekimoto, Greenpeace Japan Communications, y
, +81 80 6558 4446
Greenpeace International Press Desk Hotline, Amsterdam +31 20 7182470
Notes:
1) The IWC has stated that the data from Japan’s so-called “research” is both unneeded and unwanted, and has repeatedly asked for its whaling programme to be ended.
http://iwcoffice.org/meetings/resolutions/IWCRES49_1997.pdf
http://iwcoffice.org/meetings/resolutions/IWCRES49_1997.pdf
http://www.iwcoffice.org/meetings/resolutions/Resolution2005-1.pdf
2) Japan’s whaling subsidies: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/oceans/2012/Japan-whaling-subsidies.pdf