Does The New Japanese Government Offer Fresh Hope To Whales?

8 September 2009

The change of government in Japan in a landslide victory to the Democratic Party of Japan provides new hope of a shift on Japan’s whaling policies – especially if the Australian government plays the right cards. Although whaling is not an issue where the Democratic Party differentiates itself from the outgoing Liberal Party, a range of key policy differences could see the whaling industry lose the government support it needs to keep operating.

Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama campaigned with promises that he would cut wasteful government spending, wrestle power back from the bureaucracy and create a more open, less secretive government.

The whaling industry is far from profitable and sucks billions of yen from the public purse, as costs for expensive operations to Antarctic waters increase and the stockpiles of unsold whale meat mount. The whaling industry is shrouded in secrecy. It is run by bureaucrats and politicians who personally benefit from perpetuating a terminally ill industry.

In running our grassroots campaign against whaling in Japan, Greenpeace has had the greatest success with providing information to Japanese people about the billions in government subsidies enjoyed by  the whaling industry – and the waste of public funds spent on killing whales for meat that the public does not want to eat. [1]

The whaling industry costs the Japanese people more than 1.2 billion yen (around $15 million AUD) in annual taxpayers’ money. Trillions more yen are spent as part of the government’s foreign aid budget to recruit countries to the International Whaling Commission. The Institute for Cetacean Research, which devises the so-called research program, has outstanding loans to the government of 3.2 billion yen. [2]

The Japanese economy has been hit hard by the global financial crisis, and the new government will be looking for ways to cut spending.

The DPJ has also campaigned on a policy of more open government, less secrecy and greater Government transparency. The whaling industry is shrouded in secrecy and relies upon entrenched and powerful bureaucrats who protect their interests in the Fisheries Agency of Japan (which oversees the whaling programme).

Last year Greenpeace tackled the secrecy within the whaling industry head on by exposing evidence of a large whale meat scandal, which generated topline news and rocked the industry. But instead of investigating the whaling industry, the government responded by raiding Greenpeace’s offices, the homes of staff and arresting two activists – myself and Toru Suzuki who is visiting Australia next week. We are still awaiting trial and face up to 10 years in jail for our efforts to expose corruption within the whaling industry.

On foreign policy, the new government is likely to be more responsive to the way the whaling issue, more than any other, has tarnished Japan’s international reputation.

And this is where the Australian Government has a role to play.

In just over two months, the Japanese whaling fleet is due to depart on its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  There is a unique window of opportunity for the Australian government to encourage the new Japanese government to bring its policies to bear on the unjustified support for the whaling industry, and to shift their support on non-lethal scientific research programs.

In keeping with the Rudd Government’s preference for diplomacy there is a key opportunity now to exert maximum pressure on the new Japanese government before the departure of the whaling fleet.

A visit to Japan by Australia’s top diplomat – Mr Rudd himself, would encourage the new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to pull the government rug from under the whaling industry. Such a visit before November has more chance of tipping the balance toward an end to whaling than at any time in recent memory.

Junichi Sato is Greenpeace Japan’s Whales Campaigner. He is awaiting trial in Japan for exposing whale meat embezzlement by crew of the whaling fleet.

Toru Suzuki, the other half of the Tokyo Two isin Australia this week talking to politicians and the public about the inside story of the whaling industry in Japan and the new opportunities to bring it down.

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