{"id":20696,"date":"2018-12-26T03:01:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-25T18:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prod-jp-raw.greenpeace.org\/japan\/press-release\/story_6489\/"},"modified":"2024-07-08T09:04:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T00:04:53","slug":"story_6489","status":"publish","type":"press-release","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/press-release\/story_6489\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace condemns Japan government\u2019s \u201csneaky\u201d withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tokyo, Japan, 26 December 2018 &#8211; Greenpeace condemns the Japanese Government\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kantei.go.jp\/jp\/tyokan\/98_abe\/20181226danwa.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">formal announcement today <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to officially withdraw from <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the International Whaling Commission (IWC), with the intention to resume commercial whaling in<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone (EEZ).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Previous media reports had indicated that government of Japan was considering pulling out of the IWC, but the announcement today formalises the country\u2019s intentions to leave the organisation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sam Annesley, Executive Director at Greenpeace Japan said:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the government is trying to sneak in this announcement at the end of year, away from the spotlight of international media, but the world sees this for what it is. The declaration<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> today<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures. The government of Japan must urgently act to conserve marine ecosystems, rather than resume commercial whaling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAs a result of modern fleet technology, overfishing in both Japanese coastal waters and high seas areas has led to the depletion of many whale species. Most whale populations have not yet been recovered, including larger whales such as blue whales, fin whales and sei whales.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe world\u2019s oceans face multiple threats such as acidification and plastic pollution, in addition to overfishing. As a country surrounded by oceans where people\u2019s lives have been heavily reliant on marine resources, it is essential for Japan to work towards healthy oceans. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Japan\u2019s government has so far failed to resolve these problems. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAs the chair of the G20 in 2019, the Japanese government needs to recommit to the IWC and prioritise new measures for marine conservation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">END<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tokyo, Japan, 26 December 2018 &#8211; Greenpeace condemns the Japanese Government\u2019s formal announcement today to officially withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), with the intention to resume commercial whaling in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone (EEZ).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1772,"template":"","tags":[],"press-release-category":[14,103],"class_list":["post-20696","press-release","type-press-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","press-release-category-press-release","press-release-category-ocean"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/20696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/20696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20719,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/20696\/revisions\/20719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20696"},{"taxonomy":"press-release-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release-category?post=20696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}