After more than two and half years of pressure by Greenpeace and the famous “Tokyo Two” trials, officials with the Japanese Fishing Agency publicly admitted today that they received whale meat as “gifts” from private companies contracted by the government to slaughter whales.
One of the officials, who according to press reports was one of several who received gifts of whale meat with an estimated values of $180 to $840, even went so far as to bow in apology to the assembled media.
Junichi Sato, one of the defendants of the Tokyo Two trial and now Executive and Program Director of Greenpeace Japan said of the victory that,
“Greenpeace welcomes the Fisheries Agency of Japan’s decision to discipline its officials who had been receiving free whale meat from the whaling operating company. However, FAJ only punished 5 officials while the corruption in the whaling program is much bigger and institutionalized. Greenpeace demands a third-party investigation on the whale meat scandal to reveal the true face of the whaling program.”
“…the recognition of the corruption in the whaling program by FAJ itself will strike the credibility of the program significantly,” Sato added.
This is a great victory for Greenpeace and people like you who support the work we’re doing to pressure the Japanese government to end its annual slaughter of whales in the Southern Oceans.
