SOUTH PACIFIC (4 Jan 2008) — Japanese citizens on a global mission to promote human rights and environmental issues are demanding that Japan end its whaling atrocities. Some 1,000 Japanese passengers aboard the "Peace Boat" blasted Japan's government for pandering to ultranationalists and ignoring Japanese public opinion. "The fact our government is killing whales in the name of so-called 'scientific' research is very hard for us to accept and believe," said Peace Boat voyage director Nao Inoue. Inoue said most Japanese people reject government propaganda that whaling is culturally and historically significant. Japan's pro-whaling constituency is comprised of ultranationalists, racists, extreme right-wing neo-cons who control Japan's ruling LDP party and the small, but politically powerful fishing industry, which has been in decline for decades after the government turned a blind eye to overfishing that led to the collapse of Japan's coastal fish stocks. "Most foreigners assume Japan is a democracy and therefore government policies basically represent the will of the Japanese people," said marine biologist Kennichi Ozawa. "In fact, Japan resembles a totalitarian state like North Korea more than any western democracy," Ozawa said. "Essentially the same political group has been in power since the war ended despite almost weekly corruption scandals and flagrant pork barrel politics that exclude ordinary citizens to the benefit of special interest groups." "That's how you get government approval ratings consistently below 20 percent and that's how you get government-subsidized whaling from a nation where most people don't want to have anything to do with it," Ozawa added. Even as Japan's Peace Boat delivers its pro-conservation, anti-whaling message to island nations throughout the South Pacific, Japanese whaling ships, disguised as "Research" vessels, are illegally killing endangered whales farther south in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. | | "Whaling is a national symbol against the cultural imperialism of western nations," said Shigeko Misaki. "If we succumb to the moral standards of the western world, we would lose control of our people internally." Despite government-endorsed ultranationalist propaganda promulgated by Misaki and neo-con cronies asserting that slaughtering marine mammals is a patriotic duty, whaling has only a tiny constituency in Japan. Under increasing domestic and international pressure, government officials in Japan recently announced they have dropped plans to kill endangered humpbacks, but the pirate fleet still intends to kill nearly 1,000 whales including minke and endangered fin whales for so-called "scientific" research. Inoue said Japan's "scientific" whaling is a "farce" that damages Japan's relations with the international community. "We need to keep up with the times," Inoue said. "The younger generation in Japan is more in tune with global public opinion...most have never eaten whale meat." With the enthusiastic support of concerned citizens in Japan and throughout the world, two Southern Ocean Sanctuary patrol vessels, the "Esperanza" and the "Steve Irwin", are on the hunt for poachers and pirate whalers including the notorious "Nisshin Maru", a commercial whaling factory ship disguised as a "Research" vessel. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
