Junichi Sato is a well-known anti-whaling blogger in Japan and Greenpeace claims that this was, on the eve of the International Whaling Commission meeting, “an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for whaling.” The Japanese media are, according to Brian from Making Waves, saying that this arrest is “a warning to other activist groups that as the G8 approaches, voices of dissent in Japan will not be tolerated.”

“This was not a police action – it was an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for whaling – and the kind of harassment of whistleblowers that a modern democracy should not allow. Our first news that an arrest was imminent came from Japanese television stations. Someone leaked the information to ensure images of Greenpeace activists in handcuffs appeared on news reports in Japan.

More than 40 police officer raided our offices and the homes of the activists, and spent 10 hours seizing cell phones, documents, and computers, despite the fact that we had documented every step of how we obtained the whale meat, turned the full dossier over with the evidence, and made ourselves available to police to help with the investigation at any time. A simple phone call could have brought Junichi and Toru to the police station. Instead, the government made a public spectacle of shutting Greenpeace down.”

Jun Hoshikawa, Greenpeace Executive Director, says that the arrests are the counterattack from the Japanese Government for exposing the black market trade of stolen whale meat from the government-supported whaling fleet.

“This is the backlash. We’ve uncovered a scandal involving powerful forces in the Japanese government that benefit from whaling, and it’s not surprising they are striking back. What is surprising is that these activists, who are innocent of any crime, would be arrested for returning whale meat that was stolen from Japanese taxpayers. In whose interest were these arrests made? Because it would appear to us that this is an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for a scandal.”

Greenpeace are now asking people to take action, they also demands that Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki will be released from custody and that the real criminals are put into jail instead.

The Australian environmental minister Peter Garett said today that Australia will present their proposal next week in London during an International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.

If Australia’s proposal gets accepted whaling for “scientific reasons” must be conducted according to the commission’s rules.

But this will not be an end to whaling. Several countries like Norway, Iceland and Greenland will still continue to brutally slaughter whales for “commercial” and “cultural” purposes.

Mainly Japan, with support from Norway and Iceland, refuses to obey the rules of the moratorium set in 1986, from the Worldwide Whalehunting Commitee, which had as a goal to let the whale population increase, after it’s dramatic drop between the years 1925-1975.

However, more than 20000 creatures ended up in the hands of Japanese whalehunters. Japan claims that whales are to be blamed for the decrease of the fish population (obviously humans cannot be blamed, since they can feed only with fish, unlike whales, who could may as well prefer rabbits or vegetables) .Plus, the moratorium said that whales could be hunted for scientific reasons, and that’s exactly what Japan is supposed to be doing. But noone believes that last year’s gigantic ”mission” was for scientific research. The so-called scientists weighed the whales and then took their meat on the market to sell it.

But why can’t other countries control Japan? Apparently because it’s not only the governments’ fault. As long as people want whale, dolphin or shark meat in their diet, hunters will still find ways to keep hunting. So the main aim should be to awake all those people, and persuade them not to eat whale’s meat. And when their argument includes the phrase: “it’s part of our tradition,we wont let it die out”, the reply should be that: “tradition that harms in an uncontrolable way the earth and it’s species supports the most cruel instincts humans could have, and therefore is not a tradition that deserves to keep going…”

Peter Garrett, Australian environment minister, said that “it is explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way. And to claim that this is in any way scientific is to continue the charade that has surrounded this issue from day one.”

Mr Morimoto, japanese whalers ICR Director, said to the whalers defence that “it is necessary to conduct random sampling of the Antarctic minke population to obtain accurate statistical data.”

I wonder how “random” a “sampling” of 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales really is?

Watch the video (Swedish voices):

Related:
- The Japanese people need to “re-examine the whaling issue”
- Japan launches its largest whaling expedition ever

Now an article has appeared in Shukan Toyo Keizai, one of Japan’s leading newspapers, were they encourage Japan to “re-examine the whaling issue”.

Being one of the few issues on which Japan has made a stand against the United States and European countries, the stance of whaling hardliners could also be a vent for narrow-minded nationalism. In the end, that could easily be detrimental to national interests. Perhaps the Japanese people need to take this opportunity to re-examine the whaling issue for themselves.

Making Waves has the full translation here.

Advertising Agency: Republic of Everyone/Happy Soldiers, Sydney, Australia
Creative Director / Art Director / Copywriter: Happy Soldiers
Photographer: Adrian Lander
Retoucher: Electric Art
Released: December 2007

Japan’s whaling fleet has once again sets sail for Antarctic, on a mission to brutally slaughter whales. Let’s call it what it’s actually is and not “scientific research”, like Japan calls it.

But this time it’s a little different. This year they have decided to go big and brutally murder around 1000 whales. That’s the largest whaling mission Japan has ever done. Included in that amount are 50 humpback whales. That means that Japan will break a 44-year ban on hunting humpback whales.

This decision has already sparked loud protests from environmental groups and governments around the world. Especially the UK, Australia and New Zealand have sharply criticised Japan.

Labor, the opposition party in Australia has suggested that if they are elected in the Australian federal election this Sunday they will track down Japans whaling fleet using their military.

Greenpeace will, once again, try to track down the whaling fleet and disturb their hunt as much as possible. Karli Thomas, expedition leader onboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza says that “the whaling fleet must be recalled now. If it is not, we will take direct, non-violent action to stop the hunt”.

Sea Shephard has also set sails to try and track down and stop the whaling fleet. Captain Paul Watson says that they “need to find and intercept these vicious killers as soon as possible. Every day of searching will cost the lives of whales”.