Anti-whalers set to resume hounding Japanese fleet

Feb 14, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) - A ship carrying militant anti-whaling activists was due to head back to Antarctic waters Thursday to resume harassing Japanese whalers, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said.

The group's ship the Steve Irwin has been in port in Melbourne, Australia for 12 days to refuel and take on supplies after weeks of pursuing the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.

"A special thank you to Australia," the group's leader Paul Watson said in a message posted on Sea Shepherd's website. "You helped to send the Steve Irwin back to sea as a ValentineÂ’s Day gift to the whales."

Donations of cash, food and supplies had "flooded onto the decks of the whale conservation ship" while it was in port, the statement said, adding that it was due to leave for Antarctic waters on Thursday night.

The Steve Irwin intends to "harass and intervene" against the whalers for the next four to five weeks in an effort to prevent them hunting until the end of the season.

"In January we prevented them from slaughtering whales for three weeks, we cost the Japanese over two million dollars in fuel during the pursuit and we exposed their illegal whaling activities worldwide, and most importantly we got the story into the Japanese media," said Watson.

"This provoked a real debate in Japan on the cost of whaling to JapanÂ’s reputation."

On January 15, two activists from the Steve Irwin boarded a Japanese harpoon ship to deliver a protest note, setting off a two-day stand-off before they were released to an Australian customs vessel.

An international moratorium bans the slaughter of whales for commercial purposes but Japan exploits a loophole which allows the animals to be killed for scientific research and targeted 1,000 this season.

Watson said that next year Sea Shepherd intends to return to the Southern Ocean with a second ship "with the objective of mounting a non-stop pursuit."
The environmental group Greenpeace had also hounded the Japanese whalers but abandoned the chase for the season after running low on fuel in late January.

Dolphin slaughter brings charges from both sides

Feb 12, 2008
From Kyung Lah
CNN

TAIJI, Japan (CNN) -- Ric O'Barry sometimes dresses as a woman or wears a large surgical mask to disguise his Western identity on trips to spots overlooking the ocean.

He prowls the cliffs near Taiji, Japan, with a video camera, hoping to catch fishermen doing something that appalls him: catching dolphins.

"This here is ground zero for the largest slaughter of dolphins on planet Earth," says O'Barry, who trained five dolphins to play "Flipper" on the TV series of that name. "It's absolutely barbaric, and it needs to stop."

Fishermen hunt dolphins almost every day in Taiji, a town of about 3,000 in southwestern Japan that juts into the Pacific Ocean. Watch fishermen catch dolphins »

Locals know that they offend Western sensibilities by eating dolphins, but they say it's a tradition hundreds of years old. And they say outsiders have no more right to tell them to stop eating dolphins than they would have to demand that Westerners stop slaughtering chickens or cows.

"I know there are many different ways of thinking in different societies, but for us who've been eating this for a long time ... it's an awkward thing to be criticized for," says Kayoko Tanaka, a retired middle school teacher. "I either fry dolphin meat or turn it into a stew."

O'Barry says the dolphins face a cruel fate.

"It takes a very long time to die. They bleed to death. And some of them are dragged in the boats with hooks while they're still alive," he says. "Many of them are gutted while they're still alive."

To some puzzled people in rural Japan, the question comes down to this: What's the difference between killing and eating a dolphin, and killing and eating a fish? Or a chicken? Or a cow?

Most Japanese do not eat dolphins -- it's common in a few fishing villages -- but the government respects the rights of people in towns such as Taiji, says Joji Morishita, the international negotiator for Japan's Fisheries Agency.

Many Japanese consider the deer a sacred messenger from the gods, he says, but they would never suggest that people in other parts of the world stop venturing into the woods on a quest for venison.

"We don't like to play God to say, 'This animal is just for food, and this is not,' " he says. "Because we know, nation to nation, we have totally different ideas."

That's obvious in the growing dispute between Australia and Japan over whale hunting.

Japanese ships crisscross southern oceans each winter to capture and kill up to 1,000 whales. Whaling is allowed under international law when done for scientific reasons, which Japan claims as the legal basis for its hunts.

Legal justifications aside, however, the whale hunts offend many people in Australia, where new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has turned up the political pressure on Japan.

His government has dispatched a customs ship to monitor and videotape the whalers. And Rudd says Australia could even file charges against Japan in an international court to try to stop the whaling.

In Taiji, the fishermen are well aware of the Western sentiment that motivates whaling opponents. They realize the danger to their way of life that can come with prying cameras from other countries.

When CNN trained its cameras on fishermen gutting freshly killed dolphins, the fishermen erected tarps to obstruct the view.

Representatives of the Taiji Fishermen's Union declined requests for an on-camera interview. So did the town's mayor and several others. And O'Barry says he's gotten into a few shouting matches with fishermen, who resent him and his camera.

So what does O'Barry say to their claim that he has no right to tell them to abandon a tradition that has flourished in their corner of the world for more than 400 years?

"If someone came to my hometown and told me what to do, what to eat, I'd be outraged," he says. "But that's not going to stop me from doing it. I mean, tradition? It used to be traditional for women not to vote. So do we keep that going because it's traditional and cultural? Of course not."

Complicating the debate are findings suggesting that eating dolphins may not be healthful. The Japanese government said in 2005 that bottlenose dolphin meat contains 12 times more mercury than bluefin tuna. High levels of mercury in fish can cause health problems in pregnant women and young children.

A city council member in Taiji, Junichiro Yamashita, grew so concerned about mercury levels that he persuaded locals schools to stop serving dolphin meat at lunch. He even plucked some of his hair, sent it off for testing and discovered that it contained seven times as much mercury as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable.


The mercury findings have not swayed Masaru Matsushita, a Taiji fish dealer. He says that dolphin activists like O'Barry see only their own needs without understanding the culture in his town.

"I understand that they think the dolphin in a cute animal, and I agree they're cute doing performances," he says, "but it is our culture to eat dolphins.

Australian PM dismisses Japan whaling protests

By James Grubel

CANBERRA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Australia will continue to photograph Japan's whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday, despite Japan's warning of a diplomatic protest over Australia's tough anti-whaling stance.

Rudd said while Australia had strong economic, diplomatic and security ties with Japan, it was also important for Australia to continue to oppose Japan's annual whale hunt.

"Calling commercial whaling scientific whaling is not right, it's not accurate," Rudd told Australian television on Sunday.

Japan considers whaling to be a cherished cultural tradition. Despite agreeing to a whaling moratorium in 1986, Japan is allowed to conduct "scientific" whaling, and plans to hunt almost 1,000 minke and fin whales this Antarctic summer.

Australia, a strong opponent of whaling, has sent a customs ship to monitor Japan's whale hunt and to collect evidence for a possible international court challenge against the hunt.

"We think it's the right course of action to collect that evidence," Rudd said.

"The second part of the process is then to accumulate that evidence with a view to forming a decision about whether it's winnable to proceed with a legal case," he said.

Australia angered Tokyo last Thursday when Environment Minister Peter Garrett released photographs of what he said was an adult minke whale and her calf being towed up the ramp of a Japanese factory processing ship in Antarctic waters.

Japan on Friday said it would send a letter of protest over the photographs and Garrett's comment, that he had "a bit of a sick feeling" after seeing the photographs, saying his remarks were not "level-headed". Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said it condemned Australia over the photos, saying the release was "emotional propaganda" designed to mislead the public.

Institute Director General Minoru Morimoto said the two whales in the photographs were not a mother and calf, but were part of a random sampling of the Antarctic minke whale population.

Opinion polls in Japan show strong support for whaling and eating whale meat despite international criticism of whaling.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper poll of more than 2,000 people found 65 percent of respondents said they supported whaling, while 21 percent were opposed. It found 56 percent in favour of eating whale meat and 26 percent were against it.

Killing calves makes Japan's whaling indefensible

By C. W. NICOL
Special to The Japan Times
Feb 9, 2008

KUROHIME, Nagano Pref. — When I turned on my TV to both BBC World and CNN this morning, I was shocked and saddened by the sight of a minke whale and calf being winched up the ramp of a Japanese factory ship in the Antarctic Ocean.

The sight of a dead whale doesn't shock me because I've seen thousands. However, to see obvious and irrefutable evidence that Japanese whalers had crossed the line to killing calves, and probably a mother and calf, was too much.

I first sailed aboard a whaler in 1965 from Coal Harbor in a deep fjord in northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I was an observer with the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Arctic Biological Station, and I had come to learn how to take data and samples from large whales.

The Canadian firm B.C. Packers was in partnership with Taiyo Co. of Japan to take sei and sperm whales. The oil from the blubber and the whale meal, which was processed from guts and bones, went to Canada, while the meat was carefully processed and frozen and shipped to Japan for human consumption.

After spending a month at Coal Harbor, where I made special friends with the Japanese whalers because I could speak a little Japanese (having just spent 2 1/2 years in Japan studying martial arts), I was sent to the small harbor of Blandford, Nova Scotia. Here, a joint Canadian-Norwegian company had begun a hunt for fin whales.

I spent eight months at Blandford, and was shocked by the wasteful methods of flensing and by the fact that the meat was being sold as pet food. I made myself unpopular by expressing this shock and by taking and showing photographs of fin whale cows and calves that had been killed and towed to land. It was against the rules of the International Whaling Commission to kill such animals, but nobody seemed to care much back in 1965.

I then got shipped up to the Arctic to do research on seals, which suited me just fine. But in 1966, I was recalled south. The Japanese company Kyokuyo was starting a joint venture at Dildo, Newfoundland, to harvest fin whales for human food. I was to supervise the biological sampling by new technicians at the base and to sail aboard the catcher No. 17 Kyomaru as an observer.

I was deeply impressed by the skill and integrity of the Japanese whalers at that time, which is one of the main reasons that I came to Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, in 1978 to spend a year there in researching a historical novel on Japanese whaling.

In January 1980, I was invited to sail to the Antarctic to join the whaling fleet down there as an unpaid and totally unrestricted observer.

I was winched aboard the Nisshin Maru No. 3 on Feb. 5, 1980. They had taken 44 minke whales that day. I was aboard the No. 1 Kyomaru on March 1 when we took the last minke of the season. This was close to the end of commercial pelagic whaling.

When we returned to Japan aboard the Nisshin Maru No. 3, there was enough whale meat in the freezers to make a meal for 100 million people. The whalers were proud of that.

During that time, I saw well over 1,000 minke whales either being shot (I made trips on all four catchers) or being processed on the factory ship's deck. At no time did I see a calf or a lactating cow being chased, killed or cut up.

Having lived with Inuit hunters in Canada, I could see nothing wrong in taking marine mammals for food. In the Antarctic especially, there were plentiful minke whales, thousands of them, and in no way could the species be called endangered.

In the past, I have made myself pretty unpopular abroad in speaking out in defense of Japan taking whales for food, as long as the whalers abided by a scientific quota and observed IWC rules.

This year, when it was announced that Antarctic research whaling operations intended to take 50 humpback whales, I wrote a personal letter of protest to a senior Japanese fisheries official. There are plenty of humpbacks, but of all the whales, this one is the darling of nonhunting observers, with each whale easily identified by its natural markings. It made no sense to kill them. Anybody could predict the angry international response to such a plan, even from friends and sympathizers of Japanese whalers.

Japan is not the only whaling nation. Many forget, or do not know, that the United States pushed through a quota of 50 Arctic right whales per year for five years for their Alaskan whalers. Arctic right whales, otherwise known as bowheads, are in far fewer numbers than humpbacks. Norwegians and Russians are among several other nations that hunt whales for human food.

However, with this new lack of judgment in taking a minke calf, which no boatswain directing the movements of the ship from the crow's nest, and certainly no harpooner worth his salt could mistake for an adult, I feel I can no longer justify further support for Japan's Antarctic whaling. By the way, I am British-born, but a citizen of Japan.

Perhaps one answer would be to preserve the tradition and skills of whaling by a very limited, well-observed and controlled coastal hunt. That is a decision Japan must make for itself.

With rising fuel costs, with tons of frozen whale meat stored unused in warehouses, and with anger at home and abroad with Japan's Antarctic whaling now so intense, I, a longtime friend of Japanese whalers, join many others in asking that the whaling ships return, that emotions be put aside, and that an open and honest debate over the future of whaling be planned.

C. W. Nicol's column, Old Nic's Note book, appears on the Nature page on the first Wednesday of every month.

Most Japanese Back Antarctic `Research Whaling' in Asahi Survey

By Stuart Biggs
Bloomberg
Feb 8, 2008

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Most Japanese people support Japan's ``research whaling'' expedition in the Southern Ocean in Antarctica in the face of mounting international opposition, an Asahi newspaper survey shows.

A total of 65 percent of respondents supported Japan's whale hunt in the survey, which the Asahi conducted by telephone on Feb. 2 and 3 among 2,082 registered voters. In the survey, 56 percent supported eating whale meat, with the number rising to 80 percent among men in their 40s, 50s and 60s, the newspaper said.

Opposition to eating whale meat was stronger among younger women, with 58 percent of women in their 20s objecting to the practice, the Asahi said. Overall opposition to Japan's research whaling was 21 percent, according to the survey. The newspaper did not publish the list of questions.

Japan's whaling fleet heads to Antarctica in November each year to kill as many as 1,000 minke and fin whales for what it says is ``scientific research.'' Australia's government is considering international legal action against Japan to stop the hunts, risking antagonizing relations with the world's second- largest economy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net

Two-thirds of Japanese back whaling: poll

AFP
Feb 8, 2008

A day after graphic pictures were released of the Japanese whaling fleet in action in the Southern Ocean, a poll in Japan has shown almost two-thirds of the population supports the practice.

Japan's government says whaling is part of the national culture and it has fought bitterly with Western nations over its annual hunt of some 1,000 whales in the Antarctic Ocean.

The Asahi Shimbun said 65 per cent of Japanese support continuing the whaling programme and that 56 per cent of people backed eating whale meat.

Support for whaling was strong among older men, with close to 80 per cent of men between 40 and 70 favouring eating whale meat.

But the the figure was nearly reversed among Japanese women in their 20s, among whom 58 per cent opposed eating whale.

The Asahi survey comes despite other statistics, often cited by environmentalists, pointing out that most Japanese do not eat whale meat, which is rarely found outside of speciality restaurants and stores.

Consumption of whale meat has decreased to 30 grams per person a year - equivalent to a slice of sashimi - compared with 2.5 kilograms in the early 1980s.

- AFP

Japanese support for whaling remains strong

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Feb 9, 2008

Two thirds of Japan supports the country's controversial whaling programme, while more than half want the animals' meat to appear on menus, according to new research.

'Shocking' pictures of Japanese whaling
Polling for the leading newspaper Asahi Shimbun suggested that the Japanese public was prepared to shrug off international criticism to support the continued "scientific research" by its whaling fleet. The survey came a day after the Australian government released pictures of a slain minke whale and its calf being hauled aboard a whaling ship.

Of the 56 per cent who support whales being slaughtered for food, the majority were men in their forties and above. Younger Japanese - particularly women - were opposed to the practice.

"The government tells us that there are plenty of whales out there and it is no more terrible than killing cows or pigs for food," said Masaaki Shigeno, a property dealer in his sixties.

"Whale has been an important part of our diet for hundreds of years, so it is part of our culture."

The figures surprised commentators yesterday. They may in part be a reaction to the condemnation that has rained down on Japan in recent weeks.

Whales didn't know each other - Japan

Feb 7, 2008

JAPANESE authorities have hit back in the public relations war over its whaling program, accusing Australian officials of misleading the public.

The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) today denied two whales photographed as they were dragged bleeding into the whale processing vessel Yushin Maru, in the Southern Ocean, were mother and calf.

The two whales were unrelated, ICR director general Minoru Morimoto said, and the variance in size showed only "random sampling" in practice.

"The photographs taken by the (Australian Customs vessel) Oceanic Viking and which major Australian newspapers published today shows two minke whales, but they are not a mother and her calf as claimed by the media," Mr Morimoto said.

"Our research program requires random sampling of the Antarctic population, and therefore there will be a range of sizes.

"It is necessary to conduct random sampling of the Antarctic minke population to obtain accurate statistical data."

Mr Morimoto said the smaller of the two whales in the Australian Customs photograph was just over 5m in length, while the larger one was just over 8m.

Both whales were female and they "were not lactating", he said.

"The government of Australia's photographs, and the media reports, have created a dangerous emotional propaganda that could cause serious damage to the relationship between our two countries," he warned.

"It is important the Australian public is not misled into believing false information."

Japan has resisted mounting calls to halt its annual program of slaughtering whales in the Southern Ocean, saying it is part of a scientific program.

Two-thirds of Japanese favor whale hunt

By CARL FREIRE, Associated Press Writer
Feb 8, 2008

TOKYO - Nearly two-thirds of Japanese support the country's much-criticized whaling program, a poll showed Friday, reflecting growing sentiment in the country that the international anti-whaling campaign is fueled by Western cultural bias.

The Asahi newspaper said 65 percent of respondents to a telephone survey favored the hunts, while 21 percent said they were opposed. Three-quarters of the men surveyed supported whaling, versus 56 percent of the women, it said.

The poll also said 56 percent of the 2,082 people surveyed supported using whales for food, versus 26 percent who did not. The poll, conducted Feb. 2-3, did not offer a margin of error.

Japan kills more than 1,000 whales each year under a scientific research program allowed by the International Whaling Commission, despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling of many species. The meat is sold at market.

Japan staunchly defends the hunts as crucial for research purposes and as part of its food culture, though few Japanese eat whale regularly because the moratorium has limited supplies and other meats such as beef have gained in popularity.

The world's increasingly active anti-whaling movement, however, backed by Australia and other nations, dismisses the research as a cover for commercial whaling. Activists regularly harass the Japanese whaling fleet.

Animal rights movements in general have gained little support in Japan, where many see the anti-whaling campaign as an attempt by Westerners to impose their cultural values on the Japanese.

Japanese Agriculture Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi expressed "regret" Friday over Australia's release of images of Japanese hunters hauling a bleeding whale and a calf aboard a ship near Antarctica.

"It appears there were some comments that were not cool-headed. We plan to express our regret and urge Australia to respond calmly," he said.

Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett on Thursday called the hunt "indiscriminate killing," and termed the Japanese scientific program a "charade."

Japanese have engaged in organized whaling for food along the country's coasts since the 1600s, and U.S. occupation forces encouraged Japanese hunts on the high seas after World War II as a source of much-needed protein.

Japanese officials often point out that it was the major whaling fleets of the United States and Europe that decimated world whale populations, and that they only turned against whaling when it was no longer economically profitable.

Japan to complain to Australia over whale pictures

by Shingo Ito
Feb 8, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan said Friday it will complain to Australia after the government released graphic pictures of bloody whaling operations, accusing Canberra of stirring up emotions.

Australian media on Thursday prominently aired the pictures taken by an Australian customs vessel showing bleeding whales being dragged onto a Japanese ship after being harpooned in Antarctic waters.

"We had agreed to handle the issue calmly and avoid damaging friendly relations between the two countries," Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi told a news conference.

"However, Australia released pictures of a whaling vessel and made remarks that don't appear calm," Wakabayashi said. "We will express our regret about it and call on them through diplomatic channels to act calmly."

Japan has said the pictures were misleading and did not show a lactating mother and her calf as asserted in Australia.

Australia has taken a leading role in opposing Japan's use of a loophole in an international moratorium on whaling to kill the giants of the oceans in the name of research. The meat is then sold in supermarkets and restaurants.

Japan, which will kill up to 1,000 whales on its current expedition, says its whaling is legal and part of its culture and accuses Western countries, led by Australia, of insensitivity.

"We are considering when we should send the message and at what level," a foreign ministry official added.

Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett said that the pictures gave him a "sick feeling."

"It is explicitly clear from these images that this is the indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way," said Garrett, the former frontman of protest rockers Midnight Oil.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's left-leaning government, which took office in December, has ramped up the pressure against Japan's whaling, which is also harassed by non-governmental activists.

Japan resumed its hunt last week after it was disrupted in mid-January by anti-whaling protests, including the boarding of one of its ships by two activists from the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Amid the tensions, a poll published Friday said that nearly two-thirds of Japanese back whaling, although support is waning among the young, particularly women.

The Asahi Shimbun, which took answers from 2,082 people, said 65 percent of Japanese support continuing the whaling programme and that 56 percent of people backed eating whale meat.

Support for whaling was strong among older men, with close to 80 percent of men between 40 and 70 favouring eating whale meat.

But the figure was nearly reversed among Japanese women in their 20s, among whom 58 percent opposed eating whale.

The Asahi survey comes despite other statistics, often cited by environmentalists, pointing out that most Japanese do not eat whale meat, which is rarely found outside speciality restaurants and stores.

Consumption of whale meat has decreased to 30 grams (one ounce) per person per year -- equivalent to a slice of sashimi -- compared with 2.5 kilograms in the early 1980s.

The only nations to defy the moratorium outright are Iceland and Norway, which on Thursday authorised its crews to harpoon 1,052 whales in the 2008 season

Japan resumes annual whale hunt without activists on fleet's tail

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan has resumed its annual whale hunt in waters near Antarctica now that anti-whaling activists have stopped pursuing the country's fleet, a Japanese official said Wednesday.

Japan temporarily halted its hunt in mid-January after confrontations with both Greenpeace and the militant anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, Japanese Fisheries Agency official Jiro Hyuga said.

Late last month, the vessels each group had sent to pursue the whalers returned to port to refuel. The Japanese fleet decided to resume whaling after the threat of any interference faded, Hyuga said.

Tokyo still plans to take about 900 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales this season despite the interruption, said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the Agency's whaling section.

Paul Watson, captain of Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin, has said he and his crew are "anxious" to return to the chase, and hope to complete refueling and resupplying in Melbourne, Australia, by next Tuesday.

Greenpeace has no plans to dispatch its vessel, the Esperanza, again this season, said Greenpeace Japan spokeswoman Kyoko Murakami. The group claims to have saved more than 100 whales during the two weeks it chased the Japanese fleet.

Japan has staunchly defended its annual killing of more than 1,000 whales, conducted under a clause in International Whaling Commission rules that allows whales to be killed for scientific purposes.

Critics dismiss the Japanese program as a disguise for commercial whaling, which has been banned by the IWC since 1986.

Japan also has a North Pacific mission that kills about 100 minke whales a year.

Japan, Australia agree to deal with whaling row scientifically

February 1, 2008

TOKYO — The Japanese and Australian foreign ministers agreed Thursday to continue to deal with their dispute over Japan's whaling activities through "scientific discussions" and that recent clashes between activists and the whalers should not affect overall friendly bilateral relations.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was quoted by Japanese officials as saying that one must "disassociate" the actions of the anti-whaling activists from the Australian government's stance, while reiterating Canberra and the Australian public's opposition to Japan's so-called "scientific research whaling" activities.

Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura repeated that the boarding of a Japanese whaling vessel by two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society members was "unacceptable" and requested that legal action in accordance with Australian law be taken if the activists' boat calls at an Australian port.

The two ministers also discussed other issues including stepping up a strategic partnership both bilaterally and trilaterally with the United States, pushing forward negotiations to conclude a free trade agreement and joining hands in tackling climate change, the ministry officials said.


© 2008 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

Australian minister in Japan amid whale row

by Hiroshi Hiyama
Jan 31, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Australia's foreign minister held talks with Japan Thursday amid a bitter feud on whaling as the two countries tried to show that their close relationship was otherwise intact.

Stephen Smith was on his first foreign trip since taking office, coming to Japan from mutual ally the United States. He held talks late Thursday with his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura.

The two foreign ministers signed a treaty on avoiding double taxation, with Komura thanking Smith for visiting Japan so early in the two-month-old government's tenure.

"I would like to further enhance this relationship," Komura said.

But speaking to reporters shortly before the meeting, Komura acknowledged that the whaling row was bound to come up.

"When we see each other we will inevitably have to talk about it," Komura said. "Minister Smith may bring up the whaling issue, or I may bring up the harassment issue."

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills some 1,000 of the giant mammals a year despite passionate opposition from Western countries led by Australia and vociferous opposition from animal groups.

Environmentalists regularly harass the Japanese whalers. In mid-January, two activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society hopped onto a harpoon ship, setting off a standoff.

Sea Shepherd said Thursday that its ship had returned to port in Melbourne as it was running out of fuel, allowing Japan to resume killing whales.

Some Japanese officials had privately voiced concern about Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a former diplomat with a fondness for China, which often has uneasy relations with Japan.

Smith, speaking last week when his trip was announced, said his visit "demonstrates the priority Australia gives to the bilateral relationship."

A senior Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked for anonymity, said Smith's visit was an important reassurance.

"We see this as a message by the new Australian government that Japan remains an important ally for Australia," the official said.

"Whaling of course will be talked about at the foreign ministerial talks, but the two ministers have already discussed it over the telephone and agreed not to make it a diplomatic issue," he said.

Rudd's government has sent a customs ship to track the Japanese whalers. His Labor Party accused the previous conservative government of John Howard of failing to press for an end to whaling due to concern about business with Japan, Australia's top trading partner.

Under Howard, Japan agreed to start talks on a free-trade agreement which, if realised, would be the first between Asia's largest economy and a major agricultural exporter.

Howard last year signed a security pact with Japan -- officially pacifist Tokyo's first such deal other than its alliance with the United States.

As Smith arrived, nearly 100 experts and officials on both sides of the whaling dispute met in Japan in a bid to reach some understanding on the future of the International Whaling Commission, which is bitterly divided between countries which support whaling and those that oppose it.

The symposium, which will submit recommendations to the commission's next meeting, was arranged by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental US research institute.

The commission imposed a 1986 moratorium on whaling, but Japan argues that it should go back to its original mandate of managing whale populations for hunting.

Australian minister due in Japan amid whale row

Jan 31, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was due Thursday in Japan as part of his first foreign trip since taking office, amid a bitter feud between the allies over whaling.

Smith was heading to Tokyo from the United States, the closest ally of both Australia and Japan. He was due to meet late Thursday with his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura, and sign a treaty on avoiding double taxation.

Some Japanese officials had privately voiced concern about Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a former diplomat with a fondness for China, which often has uneasy relations with Japan.

A senior Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked for anonymity, said Smith's visit was an important reassurance.

"Some people had been holding their breath to see what it'll be like after the new prime minister takes office, as Mr. Rudd is a former diplomat who speaks fluent Chinese," he said.

"We see this as a message by the new Australian government that Japan remains an important ally for Australia."

Rudd has also pledged a tougher approach against Japan's whaling in Antarctic waters and sent a customs ship to sea to monitor the hunt.

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills some 1,000 of the giant mammals a year despite passionate opposition from Western countries led by Australia.

The Japanese official sought to play down the dispute.

"Whaling of course will be talked about at the foreign ministerial talks, but the two ministers have already discussed it over the telephone and agreed not to make it a diplomatic issue," he said.

Rudd's Labor party had accused the previous conservative government of John Howard of failing to press for an end to whaling due to concern about business with Japan, Australia's top trading partner.

Under Howard, Japan agreed to start talks on a free-trade agreement which, if realised, would be the first between Asia's largest economy and a major agricultural exporter.

Howard last year signed a security pact with Japan which is pacifist Tokyo's first such deal other than its alliance with the United States.

A row between Australia and Japan

Jan 24, 2008
From The Economist print edition

THE Southern Ocean is usually one of the world's loneliest shipping lanes. This month it has turned into an unseemly battleground over a bid by Australia's government and various environmental groups to stop Japan hunting and slaughtering whales. Japan aims to kill more than 900 minke and 50 fin whales from a region bordering Antarctica by mid-April. It claims the hunt is for scientific research; its critics say this is a brazen front for a commercial whale-meat harvest. As images of the protesters' antics inflame anti-Japanese feeling in Australia, the clash is also threatening the stability of one of Australia's strongest regional ties.

On January 22nd Greenpeace, an environmental-lobbying group, wedged a small inflatable craft between the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese fleet's factory ship, and its refuelling vessel. It managed to delay, but not stop, the operation. This was a minor episode compared with a manoeuvre a week earlier by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-whaling body. Two protesters boarded one of the Japanese whaling vessels to deliver a letter demanding that the harpooning stop and, say the Japanese, splashed acid about.

They were detained on the Japanese ship, grabbing headlines worldwide, until an Australian patrol boat returned them to their own ship three days later. More protests seem likely. Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd ship tracking the whalers, says he is prepared to keep up the chase for weeks. He painted Greenpeace as timid for its failure to prevent refuelling: “Of course it's dangerous. Stopping the whaling fleet is not a game.”

Japanese fleets have been hunting whales in the Southern Ocean for several years. None has had to deal with confrontations like those seen this season. Kevin Rudd, Australia's new prime minister, called for an end to the whaling. An Australian aircraft is keeping an eye on the operation. At least some of the whaling is happening in waters off a section of Antarctica over which Australia claims sovereignty. Eight years ago Australia declared a whale sanctuary in its Antarctic waters.

Humane Society International, another environmental group, won a ruling from the Federal Court in Australia on January 15th that whaling in the sanctuary was illegal and should stop. The court reported Japanese figures showing Japan had killed more than 3,300 minke whales and 13 fin whales in Antarctic waters (not confined to Australia's zone) since 2000.

Mr Rudd's government has reacted cautiously to the ruling. Only France, New Zealand, Norway and Britain recognise Australia' s Antarctic claim. For its part, Japan regards the Australian sanctuary as international waters. Commercial whaling was banned worldwide 22 years ago. But killing for “scientific” research is still allowed under a 1946 convention. Japan's critics question whether research requires so many whales to be killed.

Japanese officials also accuse Australia of hypocrisy: taking the high ground over whales while it kills thousands of kangaroos in controlled culls. Minoru Morimoto, Japan's commissioner to the International Whaling Commission, says: “There are enough whales for those who want to watch them and those who want to eat them.” Derek Luxford, a Sydney shipping lawyer, reckons Australia should resolve the impasse by testing its anti-whaling law before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The alternative, he says, is to allow “vigilante” groups like Sea Shepherd to enforce its law.

He may be right. The dispute is souring the air as Australia embarks on talks with Japan about a free-trade agreement. And it complicates the Rudd government's bid to balance Japan against China's growing importance for Australia. Mr Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking China expert, opposed a security pact that Australia's former government signed with Japan last year. Japan will be looking for signs that Australia's concern for the future of the whale is not part of some wider agenda.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Kyodo
Jan 26, 2008
Australian anti-whaling activists call for boycott of Japanese firms

SYDNEY — Australian conservation groups have joined a global grassroots campaign to boycott Japanese products Friday in the latest bid to pressure Japan to stop whaling. Anti-whaling activists from Australia's east coast, the Byron Whale Action Group and Surfers for Cetaceans, hand-delivered a letter to the Japanese consulate in Brisbane, informing Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of the boycott and demanding an end to whaling in the name of research.

The Brisbane offices of Sony Australia Ltd, Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd and Japan Airlines Corp also received similar messages from the groups.

Byron Whale Action Group spokesman Dean Jefferys said the Australian boycott is part of a global grassroots campaign that has been coordinated over Internet websites such as MySpace and YouTube.

Other conservation groups taking part include the U.S.-based Save the Whales and Britain's Cetacea Defence.

"What we have found is that the larger environmental groups like Greenpeace are not willing to call for a boycott because they are afraid of getting sued. But there has been a real movement of smaller conservation groups, getting together through the Internet and organizing this kind of action," Jeffreys said.

While stopping short of a boycott, Greenpeace has recently targeted Canon Inc over its high-profile advertising and sponsorship programs dedicated to wildlife and endangered species, by challenging the world's top digital camera maker to match word to deed by taking a stand against whaling.

Specifically, it has appealed by letter to Canon's CEO Fujio Mitarai to endorse a statement of opposition to Japanese whaling in Antarctic seas and the use of lethal research methods.

On Jan 22, however, the company declined, saying that while it recognizes "the importance of protecting endangered wildlife...scientific opinion about research whaling varies," according to Greenpeace, which is now asking Canon customers to urge the company to change its mind.

"Canon sells cameras by using the pictures of endangered species, including whales," Greenpeace Japan Whales Project Leader Junichi Sato said. "Greenpeace is amazed that Canon wouldn't condemn the killing of threatened species for fake research."

The Japanese whaling fleet is currently in the Antarctic, where it plans to kill 935 minke and 50 fin whales as part of its whaling program, as the taking of whales for scientific research is permitted under International Whaling Commission rules.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, will visit Tokyo next Thursday, where he will meet with his counterpart Masahiko Komura and attempt to smooth over bilateral relations following the whaling row.

Smith told Sky News on Friday whaling will not harm the bilateral relationship.

"Foreign Minister Komura and I, Australia and Japan have to date agreed to disagree about the issue, but that won't get in the fundamentals of the relationship," he said.


© 2008 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

Japan asks Australia to take legal action on anti-whaling activists

Jan 22, 2008

Kyodo) _ Japan urged Australia in a ministerial meeting Tuesday to take legal action against two anti-whaling activists who boarded a Japanese whaling vessel in the Antarctic Ocean without permission and to take measures to prevent a recurrence, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura made the demands in talks with Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean in Tokyo, although the two also reaffirmed that the recent clashes over the whaling issue should not affect overall friendly bilateral relations, Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama said.

Separately, Crean met with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari and reaffirmed the importance of the two countries cooperating closely on key economic issues, including efforts toward an early conclusion of the World Trade Organization Doha Round of liberalization talks, a Japanese trade ministry official said.

During their 30-minute meeting, Amari and Crean also exchanged views on issues related to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and negotiations for a free trade agreement between Japan and Australia, the official said.

But given that it was the first meeting between Amari and Crean, their discussion did not go into details, the official said.

On the whaling issue, Komura was quoted as telling Crean, who described it as a "sensitive" one, that the actions by the two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society members "trying to endanger the safety of our Japanese vessel was unacceptable" and requested that measures in accordance with Australian law be taken should the activists' boat call at an Australian port.

In response, Crean said the Australian Federal Police are investigating the case and that his government would decide on response measures based on the results, according to Kodama.

The two campaigners, an Australian and a Briton, of the U.S. civic group were temporarily detained after they boarded the Yushin Maru No. 2 last week, and were later turned over to an Australian customs ship.

Meanwhile, the interruption of a tanker's refueling of another Japanese whaling vessel in the Antarctic Ocean on Tuesday morning Japan time by a Greenpeace International boat was not taken up in the meeting between Komura and Crean.

Commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. But the whaling convention allows Japan to catch the mammals so long as it is for scientific purposes.

Crean, who was appointed trade minister in December, held the meetings with the Japanese ministers on his way to attend the World Economic Forum, which will begin Wednesday in the Swiss resort town of Davos.

Australian PM steps into Japan whaling standoff

Jan 17, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stepped into a tense standoff between Japan and a militant anti-whaling group Thursday, calling for calm and the safe return of two activists held on a Japanese ship.

Rudd said his Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was in constant contact with the Japanese government to arrange the immediate handover of the two men, who were detained after boarding the Japanese whaling ship in Antarctic waters.

"I have concerns about the safety of all people involved with the operation," Rudd told reporters.

"Therefore I would again urge restraint on the parties, full cooperation on the part of those involved to ensure the safe return of these two individuals."

Smith said Australia was ready to send a customs ship to pick up the men and end the high-seas standoff, in which the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has refused to meet Japanese conditions for their return.

The government would use the Oceanic Viking, which is in the area, to transfer the pair back to the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Steve Irwin, if all parties cooperated, he told reporters.

"We would like the transfer to be expedited as soon as possible but people should understand it is a difficult operation," Smith said.

Japan, which says whaling is a part of its culture, uses a loophole in an international moratorium on the practice which allows "lethal research". It is on a mission to kill 1,000 whales in Antarctic waters this season.

The confrontation has forced the Japanese fleet to suspend whaling for the time being and drawn attention to efforts by activists to halt the annual hunt for good.

"The good news is that they haven't killed any whales for a week, and all the whaling activity is shut down, so we've effectively ended whaling for now," Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson told AFP.

The two activists -- Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35 -- were detained Tuesday after boarding the harpoon ship Yushin Maru No 2 to protest Japan's whaling programme.

Japan on Thursday welcomed the idea of Australia picking the men up.

"If concrete, Japan would greatly welcome such a move because it would be one step forward in resolving this problem," Hideki Moronuki, the whaling chief at Japan's fisheries agency, told AFP.

Moronuki accused the environmentalists of misrepresenting Japan's position, saying the whalers were not setting conditions and wanted to get rid of the protesters.

The only conditions attached to the handover were to ensure that it could be carried out safely, he said.

One of the conditions is that the Sea Shepherd ship must remain at least 10 nautical miles away from the Japanese vessel and send a small boat to pick the men up -- something Watson rejects as too dangerous.

"You must understand the reluctance of the Japanese to lash their vessel up to the Steve Irwin -- it's just not going to happen like that," said a spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood.

"There are very serious security and safety concerns here," he told AFP.

Inwood suggested that if the men were not picked up, they would have to remain on board for the duration of the hunt and return with the ship to Japan, where they could face charges.

Watson told Sky News he would not rule out a commando-style raid to rescue them rather than allow them to be taken to Japan.

"That would be an act of desperation but I'm not going to let them take them back to Japan and put them on trial for piracy," he said.

Watson said Japan's whaling authorities had refused to release the men until he agreed to stop disrupting the hunt, and vowed he would not bow to "terrorist" tactics.

The Sea Shepherd founder has been accused of refusing to agree to their return in order to drag out the drama for publicity purposes, but he told Australian radio he welcomed the possibility of the government picking them up.

"That is fine. We just want to get them off that boat," he said.

Australia, which is one of the strongest critics of Japanese whaling, last week sent the Oceanic Viking to the area to monitor the operation and gather evidence for a possible international legal case against the whalers.

"The key challenge is how do we bring about the end of commercial whaling, period, into the future -- that's what I'm concerned about," Rudd said. "This is not scientific whaling -- this is commercial whaling."

Machimura raps anti-whaling group for not picking up detained members

Jan 17, 2008

(Kyodo) _ Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Thursday criticized an anti-whaling group for not picking up two of its members, who were detained after they boarded a Japanese whaling vessel Tuesday in the Antarctic Ocean, despite Japan's offer to release them.
"We have told (the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) we want to hand them over quickly, but Sea Shepherd has not shown any reaction whatsoever so we are frankly in a bind," Machimura told a press conference.

"It is a truly bizarre situation that they would not come to pick (the members) up" despite the offer from the Japanese side, the top government spokesman said.

Machimura said Japan has asked the Australian government for help in mediating the handover of the two male members of Sea Shepherd from the Yushin Maru No. 2, as an Australian customs vessel Oceanic Viking was near the Japanese boat.

Commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. But the whaling convention allows Japan to kill the mammals so long as it is for scientific purposes.

Sea Shepherd maintains that what Japan is doing is illegal and contravenes global treaties such as the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species. Japan says that the populations of certain whale species have recovered sufficiently to warrant whaling.

Greenpeace: Japan's whale kill halted

By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 13, 2008

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Greenpeace said Monday it has disrupted the Japanese whale hunt off Antarctica by chasing the fleet's whale processing factory ship out of the whaling zone.
The six-vessel fleet "scattered and ran" early Saturday when it realized the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza was "heading toward them at high speed," Greenpeace expedition leader Karli Thomas told New Zealand's National Radio.
The fleet's three whale hunter vessels "can't operate without the (factory ship) Nisshin Maru there to process the kill," she added.
Greenpeace has pledged to take nonviolent action to try to stop the ships from killing whales, which in the past has led to activists in speed boats trying to put themselves between whales and Japanese harpoons, and once led to a ship collision.
A spokesman for Japan's whale hunt called Greenpeace's actions illegal and demanded it stop its disruptive actions.
"Greenpeace actions are illegal under international law (and) it's time the public stopped treating Greenpeace as heroes," Glenn Inwood, spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, in Tokyo, Japan, said Monday. "It's time the public saw this fringe group for what they really are: environmental imperialists who are trying to dictate their morals to the world."
Japan dispatched its whaling fleet to the icy waters of Antarctica in November to kill about 1,000 whales under a program that Tokyo says is for scientific purposes, but which anti-whaling nations and activists say is a front for commercial whaling.

Australia increases pressure on Japan over whale hunt

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
January 9, 2008

Australia has stepped up pressure on Japan to end its controversial whale hunt in the southern ocean, dispatching a surveillance vessel that will gather evidence for a possible legal challenge to the cull.
The Oceanic Viking, an armed icebreaker normally used to apprehend poachers, left a naval base near Perth yesterday and will track the fleet for 20 days, local media reported today.
Australian customs officials do not have the authority to board the Japanese ships and, in a conciliatory gesture, the Oceanic Viking's twin 50mm machine guns will be stowed below deck.



In addition, it will not share information on the fleet's location with protesters from Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.
The Oceanic Viking's dispatch came as Britain and other anti-whaling countries stepped up their campaign to end Japan's annual "scientific" hunts. Japan insists the missions are vital to a better understanding of the mammals' migratory, feeding and reproductive habits.
Last month, 30 countries and the EU issued a written protest. Japan agreed to drop plans to kill 50 endangered humpbacks, but said it would proceed with the slaughter of almost 1,000 other whales.
Britain's fisheries minister, Jonathan Shaw, today told Japan's deputy ambassador, Wataru Nishigahiro, of Britain's outrage at the lethal research in the Antarctic.
"Japan's slaughter of whales in the name of so-called science is unacceptably cruel, scientifically unnecessary and of no economic value," he said.
He said Tokyo "must realise the serious damage that whaling does to [Japan's] image here and around the world", adding: "Britain cannot understand why Japan chooses to defy international opinion, and we will continue to oppose all attempts by Japan to undermine the worldwide ban on commercial whaling."
Japan has killed around 7,000 minke whales in the name of research since the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986. This year's target cull of 935 minke and 50 endangered fin whales is the biggest so far.
The cull has strained ties between Japan and the Australian Labor government of Kevin Rudd, who took office at the end of last year promising to take a tougher line than his conservative predecessor, John Howard.
Some opposition MPs, however, claimed Rudd had delayed the Oceanic Viking's departure in an attempt to limit the diplomatic fallout amid reports that the whalers had already killed between one-third and half of their quota.