Anti-Whaling Activists Provoke Japanese Authorities
Written by Keiko Tanaka
Japanese whaling authorities and anti-whaling activists are trading blame after a harpoon ship collided with two vessels from the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd [1] in Antarctic waters on February 20, 2013.
The incident offered a glimpse into the country’s complicated relationship with whaling as many Japanese Web users, regardless of their opinion on the practice, lined up against Sea Shepherd and slammed what some called the world’s selective outrage over Japanese whaling.
Activists from US-based Sea Shepherd maintain that the 8,000-tonne factory ship Nisshin Maru rammed two of the organization’s vessels [2], the Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin, as well as its own refueling ship, the South Korean tanker ship Sun Laurel.
Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research [3], the country’s quasi-governmental whaling body, disputes the anti-whaling group’s version of events, claiming that Sea Shepherd vessels made a “foolhardy” attempt to sabotage [4] the Nisshin Maru’s refueling effort, provoking the collision.
No one was injured in the incident.
The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 [5]. In recent years, Japan has caught between 400 and 1,000 whales per year [6] as part of what it calls “scientific research” and the meat is sold as a byproduct on the open market in Japan, despite the country’s waning appetite for whale meat. Critics [7] have called the Institute of Cetacean Research a ruse to continue commercial whaling despite the moratorium.
Critics have also accused Sea Shepherd of using aggressive, at times violent tactics to stop Japan’s whaling. Days after this latest clash, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling on an unrelated case filed against the organization by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research in November 2011, labeled them as pirates [8].
After the collision, many Japanese Web users took to social media to condemn Sea Shepherd without explicitly professing support for their homeland’s practice whaling, a sign of the Japanese people’s nuanced perspective on the practice.
In an online poll on newly launched polling platform zzhh.jp [10] [ja], users were asked to answer whether they thought Sea Shepherd’s intervention of Japan’s whaling is a criminal act. Many of the 210 users who participated answered that they consider it a crime regardless of if they are for or against whaling. User @naoki_ma [11] commented:
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It is up to the Sea Shepherd to protest research whaling, but their behavior seems obviously against international law however I tried to align with them. Given that there is no criticism [by Sea Shepherd] against whaling in European countries, I cannot help but feel that they have some sort of contempt [for Japan]. I ask for the government to stand resolute and consider countermeasures for self-defense.
Japanese media coverage of opposition to whaling has been relatively scant compared to the amount of coverage devoted to the subject by international media, as the case has been for other marine mammal hunts [12] by Japan.
But the news of the clash between the whaling ship and Sea Shepherd ships dominated headlines in Australia, which is one of Sea Shepherd’s most prominent supporters. Japanese author Kaz Hagiwara (@reservologic [13]), who resides in Australia, noted on Twitter:
@reservologic [14]: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????http://bit.ly/VJ8KMg
@reservologic [14]: Media coverage in Australia this morning flooded with the news that Japan’s whaling research ship violently intervened with the Sea Shepard in the Australian territorial waters. The issues surrounding Japan’s whaling always come up almost routinely when an election is near. Note that the approval ratings of PM Julia Gillard is in a slump now.
But despite the Japanese’s clear cut opposition to Sea Shepherd, opinions about the actual matter of whaling aren’t so unanimous. Some wonder about the inconsistency of plentiful whale meat available in the online [15][ja] and offline marketplace as a byproduct of whale research. Twitter user @one_one_nine [16][ja] asked:
@one_one_nine [17]: ???????????????????????????????? RT @lllpuplll: ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
@one_one_nine [17]: Then why is it that there is a substantial amount of whale meat available in the market while they claim that it is for research purposes? QT@lllpuplll: No whaling because it’s a pity while you devour piggies and cows? Japanese should be more aware of where they stand.
Japan’s financial support of whaling has also attracted criticism at home that funds could be better spent elsewhere. Miyako Maekita (@maekitam [18]), who heads green advertising agency Sustena, discussed [19] [ja] on Twitter in October 2012 how the budget for reconstruction efforts in Ishinomaki [20], which suffered serious damage from the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami [21] in March 2011, was diverted to whaling instead:
@maekitam [19]:?23????????????????????23?????????????????????????????18??+??????????4?8??????????????????????????OB???????10???3,4??????????????#?????
@maekitam [19]: 2.3 billion yen was allocated to Arctic research whaling from the disaster reconstruction budget. Disaster-stricken Ishinomaki city in Miyagi Prefecture [whaling area] protested that “this does not help our community.” 1.8 billion yen for research whaling + 480 million yen for Sea Shepherd counter measure budget. The Institute of Cetacean Research, which handles whaling and selling whale meat, consists of former-government officials “parachuted” in. The former vice-director for the fisheries agency sits as chief director, three to four “parachuted” in former government officials of all 10 members. This is an act of thief.
But defenders of the practice, despite Japan’s image in the press as a cruel whaler, point to Japanese folk belief that considers whales as divine [22] [ja]. A Twitter user commented [23]last year that Japan holds memorials for dead whales in certain areas:
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In Tohoku [north east area of ] Japan, there is a shrine dedicated to celebrate whales, as a memorial for every single whale with their names. Japan has treated whales the best in the world, and for a long time, comforted the spirit of whale after life. I’ve never heard Sea Shepard did this kind of thing.
Article printed from Global Voices: http://globalvoicesonline.org
URL to article: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/03/16/anti-whaling-activists-hit-a-nerve-in-japan/
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