Closures,
resignations and cancelled celebrations
- 12 November 2008 - International — As
the whaling fleet prepares to depart Japan,
evidence is mounting of an industry in crisis,
as new revelations of financial and image
problems add to the woes of the scandal-plagued
industry.
The Institute for Cetacean
Research, which conducts Japan's whaling
programme, and Kyodo Senpaku, which operates
the whaling fleet, this week announced the
closure of the whaling industry's flagship
'Yushin' whale meat shop and restaurant
in Asakusa, Tokyo due to ongoing financial
problems.
The shop, an iconic
symbol of whaling in Japan, will close its
doors in 2010. That's the same year that
the Jarpa II research programme -- under
which whales are killed in the guise of
"scientific reserach" will be
reviewed.
Unable to find all-Japanese
crew for "traditional" hunt?
In addition, informants inside the whaling
industry tell us that for the first time
the taxpayer-funded whaling fleet will not
be 100 percent Japanese-crewed, due to the
resignation of many crew members following
the recent whale meat embezzlement scandal
exposed by Greenpeace in May 2008. Our undercover
investigation found that valuable cuts of
whale meat were being smuggled ashore by
the crew of the Japanese whaling factory
ship, Nisshin Maru, for illegal trade and
personal gain, at the Japanese taxpayer's
expense. One crewmember had boasted that
he had built a house on the proceeds from
his personal whale meat sales.
Yushin whale meat shop,
Asakusa, Tokyo, to be closed in 2010 ©Dave
Walsh
Given the air of scandal,
it's not surprising that the whalers may
also be cancelling their traditional departure
party. We received reports of the potential
cancellation of the traditional high-profile
ceremony in the whaling fleet's home port
of Shimonoseki, which marks the departure
of the whalers for the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary. The fleet is expected to depart
later this week, from another port, where
it will be seen off only by families of
crew members and officials from the whaling
operation.
We busted their refrigerator
This series of embarrassments
follow last month's deflagging of the whaling
fleet's refueling and cargo ship, Oriental
Bluebird, after being ruled in violation
of a number of domestic and international
regulations as a result of work Greenpeace
and local environmental groups took to inform
Panamanian authorities of irregularities
in the ship's operation. The Oriental Bluebird
had a Panamanian flag.
"As any commercial
operator knows, when your business is universally
condemned, when you can't hold onto your
staff and when almost no one will buy your
products - its time to shut it down",
said Sara Holden, our International Whales
Campaign coordinator.
"Although whaling
officials claim the decline in business
is due to a lack of supply, the Institute
for Cetacean Research's own figures flatly
contradict this; the stockpile of whale
meat is actually increasing, which shows
that there is no market for whale meat in
Japan." According to Japan's Ministry
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,
there were 2800 tonnes of whale meat in
storage at the beginning of 2008, which
has increased to 4200 tonnes by September
2008.
Orwellian: Expose a
crime, get arrested
Greenpeace's campaign to end whaling in
the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary has increasingly
focused on the authorities in Japan, where
71 percent of the public do not support
Japan's whaling programme. As a result of
the Greenpeace investigation into embezzlement
of whale meat from the factory ship Nisshin
Maru, Japanese authorities mounted a politically
motivated prosecution of two Greenpeace
activists.
Junichi Sato and Toru
Suzuki, known as the Tokyo Two, have been
denied their liberty for 145 days, since
exposing the corruption. They will be put
on trial early next year, and face up to
10 years in jail for intercepting whale
meat stolen by crew from the whaling factory
ship Nisshin Maru.
Amnesty International
has denounced the arrest as being politically
motivated, and in a periodic evaluation
completed last month, the United Nations
Human Rights Committee severely reprimanded
the Japanese government for the "unreasonable
restrictions placed on freedom of expression"
in Japan. It also condemned the abuse of
trespass laws by Japanese police to harass
activists who are critical of government
policy.
"The extreme reaction
by the authorities shows Greenpeace's work
in Japan has put the whaling establishment
under pressure" said Jun Hoshikawa,
Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan.
"The whale meat market has clearly
collapsed and is unprofitable, and the stigma
of scandal and corruption has made it an
unattractive and less lucrative industry
to work for. The whaling industry's days
are numbered, and it's time for the Japanese
taxpayer to demand the government stops
subsidising this bankrupt programme."
