Fisheries minister says Japan will not stop whale hunting

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Ida Torres in National with 12 Comments
Fisheries minister says Japan will not stop whale hunting

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that there will probably no end to whaling in Japan, in spite of the sometimes violent objection from conservationists. He believes that the criticism of the whaling practice is “a cultural attack, a kind of prejudice against Japanese culture”.

Japan has always claimed whaling as a cultural tradition and along with Norway and Iceland, are the only nations that have defied the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. Japan has used a loophole on the international ban by using the whaling expeditions as “scientific research” although admittedly, the whales end up as culinary treats. Australia and New Zealand have continually voiced fierce objections to Japan’s annual expeditions in the Southern Ocean, which is considered a whaling sanctuary by the International Whaling Commission.

Aside from worldwide criticism, the whaling fleet also deals with sometimes violent confrontations on the sea with militant conservationists like the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which for the past years has chased off the whaling fleets in Antarctica in an attempt to stop the slaughter of the mammals. Their latest confrontation on the icy waters last Monday saw the two sides accuse each other of ramming its vessels. Sea Shepherd has also accused the fleet of spilling oil in Australian waters. The Japanese government meanwhile has protested the activist’s latest “stunt” which saw Sea Shepherd’s ship Bob Barker position itself between two Japanese ships to stop them from refueling.

[ via The Journal ]
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  • AnimuX

    The thugs of Sea Shepherd will be relieved to hear of this. How else would they make their millions without their beloved anti-Japanese-whaling cash cow? The money for those big Sea Shepherd executive salaries has to come from somewhere after all. If you listen carefully, you can hear the champagne corks popping in the Southern Ocean…

    • AnimuX

      *yawn* @ impersonators….

  • RP

    LOOK!
    Who are the real “Thugs” here. Japanese Whale poachers sail into Australian Ocean waters, then into an Australian Whale sanctuary, kill whales by running them down with a ship and killing them by slow death using an explosive harpoon fired from a canon. Then the poached whale is dragged into a floating factory ship to be process into cans which are stored frozen that few in Japan want to purchase or eat. The members of ICR have the gall and nerve to call commercial whaling, “scientific research?” There has yet to be any scientific papers published by the ICR of any scientific value. This is all about trying to save a long dead Japanese industry and saving face and dealing with the shame of failure..

    What gives the Nation of Japan any right to poach in Australian ocean waters, Australian whale sanctuary?

    The sad truth to what Yoshimasa Hayashi is saying, losing face towards the world and the shame of failure is worst than death. It is sad to see how this self-destructive aspect of saving face and shame is so baked-into Japanese culture. This is the same ideology that Emperor Hirohito deeply believe which resulted in the atomic bombings of two Japanese cities which brought extreme pain, suffering and untold loss to Japanese citizens and the nation of Japan.

    Look at the current economic problems in Japan and it can be clearly traced back to the same losing face, shame of failure ideology and beliefs that are currently still causing so many problems in the Nation of Japan.

    What Japan must do is grow up and mature out of preserving self-destructive customs, ideologies and stop the development of Japan as a nation and a member of the world community.

    A single stroke of compassion and respect for living creatures can bring great constructive change to Japan and much of the world.. As long as Japan digs in their effort to preserve such self-destructive ideology, Japan as a nation and it’s citizens will continue to suffer under those who continue to press for these ways.

    • Kyle

      If I could give your post 10 ^’s I would. What Japan is doing sickens me. I say this as someone that considers Japan to be my second home as I lived there for 10 years of my adult life.

      Japan has a LOT to be ashamed of with its record of senseless slaughter of sea life. This also includes the butchering of dolphins in Taiji and other places and pawning off the mercury-laden meat to unsuspecting consumers. As much as I hate to say it, it’s going to take someone ramming a whaling vessel and killing a number of those on board to get the attention of governments involved. Perhaps that won’t even be enough.

      Japan and the other two countries should not be permitted to flout international treaties, especially when the whaling industry is so heavily subsidized because most of the people who used to eat it are dying off.

      • irairaneko

        Does Japan really have anything more to be ashamed of than any other country? Time to take the log out of the anglophone eye and stop judging. Take a good look at what constitutes beef and dairy ‘farming’ in anglophone countries before you start waffling on about whales and governments. The whaling probably would have stopped long before now if foreign anti-whaling pressure hadn’t been so great. When Hayashi calls it “a kind of prejudice against Japanese culture”, he is correct. For the record, I am anti-whaling.

    • rickrob515jpn

      +100. Excellent post friend, couldn’t agree more..

  • Marc_Hutton

    Just who are you trying to kid here. This is the 21st century, we do know what the actual facts are. The facts are that you can’t even get people in Japan to purchase what little ill gotten meat you do manage to return from the Antarctic with. Japan certainly managed to rise the volume to 11 this year but the consequences are going to be on the back of you arrogant SOBs and not on Sea Shepherd. So called “culture” doesn’t give you a license to attack an endangered species. The Japanese attitude on display here is exactly what resulted in the United States destroying your country and turning two of your cities into radioactive ruble. Keep it up, we are certainly aren’t going to nuke anyone over this but the time may have come to send some Japanese whaling boats to the bottom of the sea with all hands on board. I would rather see dead Japanese whalers than dead whales.

    • NoOneNeedstoDie

      I rather see whaling stop and no one died in the process. What you are saying makes you worse than the whaler.

  • AnimuX

    The fact is, Japan hasn’t killed a whale for ‘tradition’ in a century.

    Back in 1900 Japan adopted Norwegian methods of industrial modern whaling including powered Norwegian built ships, explosive-tipped cannon-fired harpoons purchased from Norway, and even actual Norwegian whalers hired as crew. This was done for the purpose of mass producing whale oil to export to western countries for things like lamp fuel and margarine.

    In fact, according to Jun Morikawa, author of “Whaling in Japan: Power, Politics, and Diplomacy”, whale meat was only a substitute meat during the post WWII food shortages and when Japanese families could afford other meats they stopped buying whale. Today, hardly anyone in Japan eats whale and if the government didn’t include it in compulsory school lunches most Japanese children would never know the taste.

    Morikawa also explains that the whaling continues for the benefit of corrupt bureaucrats who ensure tax funded subsidies in the fisheries budget only to later take high paid jobs in the commercial whaling industry. This type of corruption is so common in Japan they have a word for it: ‘amakudari’.

    So much for cultural tradition…

    • Think

      And it was never a “national” tradition. Scavenging whales was at most the tradition of a few poor fishing villages and even less made it to the hunting level because it was too high risk and uneconomical in the most base manner.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marv-Brown/100001689701098 Marv Brown

    My message to the Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi: Part of my culture is to stop you whale killers any way I can, and I thoroughly support Sea Shepherd with my time and financial support. How much money are you getting from the whaling industry for your support of their whale slaughter, Mr. Minister? How corrupt are you? You should hang your head in shame and take the only honorable way out that your culture offers for dealing with dishonor.

  • RP

    Trying to indoctrinate Japanese children into eating whale meat as a means to support whaling in Japan’s future is simply WRONG…

    This is no different than Adolf Hitler who gave wooden airplane models to German children so they would be willing to be German fighter pilots to fight Hitler’s war..