Negative Economic Impact on the Japanese Economy due to Illegal and Unrestricted Whaling - Term Paper Example

Negative Economic impact on the Japanese economy due to illegal and unrestricted whaling "A major difficulty in comparing the intelligence of man with that of dolphins is the fact that we have evolved into two such different environments. The so-called "environment factor", which makes comparisons between even different ethnic groups of men extremely difficult, becomes almost an impenetrable barrier when comparing men and dolphins." (Dobbs, 53) The Earth Summit of 1992 was a landmark phenomenon in the socio-economical-environmental context of the world. It was here that a new type of global environmentalism emerged where states around the world tend to represent themselves as key actors as environmental green peace maker. Before this incident, Japan has been trying to position itself as a global leader of environmental peace-maker rhetorically. But if Japan's own contribution to its domestic environmental impacts, we find out that there are at least five categories or key areas where Japan excels with a lot of scopes to be desired for in the context of environmental green peace. These five major areas are the promotion of high technology, deforestation, foreign direct investment, official development assistance and over-fishing. In the context of over-fishing the prime concern of the world right now is the problem of whaling. In Eco Pre Meeting, Issue 1, it has been reported that the Japanese government has thrown down the gauntlet to the IWC by proposing to expand its so-called "scientific" whaling. Next in line for slaughter are sperm whales, the huge and endangered species immortalized by Melville in Moby Dick, and Bryde's whales. This is on top of the more 500 mink whales they kill annually. Although commercial whaling was banned by the Commission in 1986, Japan has killed mink whales in the Antarctic since 1987 and in the North Pacific since 1994. Under a loophole in the IWC Convention, countries need only inform the Commission of their plans to kill whales for scientific purposes. The IWC Scientific Committee has regularly declared that Japan's proposed research provides little or no information that would contribute to the proper management of whale populations. And the full Commission has repeatedly urged Japan to refrain from granting themselves research permits for such whaling. Nevertheless, Japan has continued to kill whales and sell the meat commercially. Yet the killing goes on. More recently, (May 11, 2006) Japan announced that "Japan has announced a new marketing push for its most unwanted export: whale meat. A new company, with a sales target of 1000 tonnes per year, started works a few days ago. But finding someone, anyone, to buy it will be a challenge. Domestic demand is at a historic low. Japan's stockpile of frozen whale meat was a record 4800 tones last August, unofficial reports say. And that was before the most recent season when more than 850 mink whales, each weighing about 10 tones, were caught in the Southern Ocean. The decision by Japan's whale research body, the Institute of Cetacean Research, to set up a company to find new markets comes a month after the country's second-largest seafood company, Nissui, said that it would abandon its whale meat canning business." (Cameron, 3) But despite all these Japan keeps on the trade of whale killing under disguise of scientific operations. Japan says that it does not have a commercial whaling program and that what is sold at Tokyo's famous fish market is a sensible use of the byproduct of scientific research into whale biology and migration. Opponents say that killing whales for research is unnecessary and that Japan is using a loophole to circumvent a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. (Cameron, 3) A lot of organizations from all over the world from countries like Canada and Australia are working vigorously to put an end to this trade by boycotting Japanese product and Japanese companies like Mitsubishi. Japan continues to kill whales under the name of "research". However, it is not really research. Half the whale meat sold in Japan comes from this hunt. You don't have to kill humans to study them. Surely the same applies to whales. They killed 90 whales last year, many more times the number the Makah killed. This hunt, like the Makah hunt, is a wedge that allows others to justify hunts, both legal and illegal. The Mitsubishi Salt Plant wants to build a salt plant in Scanlon's Lagoon. Unfortunately this is where nearly all the world's gray whales go to raise their young. A salt plant can go anywhere there is salt water and flat hot land to dry it. Why pick the one place in the world for it that will send a beautiful species of whale into extinction Boycott Mitsubishi, Boycott Japan (Green, 1) On the other hand, there are strong disagreements expected from nations such as Australia, which has labeled Japan's scientific whaling a sham and claims whales don't need to be killed to understand their populations. (Doi, Emi and Johnson, Tim, 4) As for the United States the angry conservationist mentioned that Japan has doubled the number of whaling over the period of last calendar year. They also showed evidence that on April, 2006 the ship that returned from its Antarctic expedition actually was meant for vigorous whaling as it was found that as many as 860 whales were killed in this so called scientific expedition and the whale carcasses prove their theory to the extent of unblemished phenomenon. Another global group, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, recently released a report condemning whaling "under the guise of science." It plans to buy television ads and billboards in major U.S. cities to campaign against accelerated Japanese whaling. The global activist group Greenpeace harassed Japan's whaling ships at sea this year to hinder the harvest. It was also found out that once the ships reached the trading Japanese port of Kanazawa all the meat were send into the open market. To this the reparations of Japanese officials were strange enough. According to them they have to kill some whales to understand fully the age structures of whale populations, ocean ecosystems and the impact of harvesting. Even stranger comments were found when another official Makoto Ito, the general secretary of the Japan Whaling Association, a trade group, mentioned that "some people may not understand why we eat whale meat. But this is traditional food for us," said. "For example, I don't eat dog meat like Korean people. But if I see Korean people killing and eating dog, I think, That is their culture.'" Whatever it is, the end result comes out with the slaughter of thousands of whales around the world and to this the United States has planned a trade ban and boycott of some Japanese food products, specifically whale meat. But it should be considered that this not a very easy task as Japan is the second most economically advanced country in the world. This is because, with the ban on Japanese food products by the United States Government Japan has promptly reciprocated by banning all meat imports from the United States. "The argument that this is science is really one that the Japanese have difficulty making with a straight face," said Greg Wetstone, the U.S. director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "You can't find a meaningful peer-reviewed (academic) paper out there." Japan's claim that it has now successfully dealt with all or most of its own environ-mental problems seems ludicrous to an outside observer, but may reflect a rather different cultural conception of "environment" than that which environmentalists are often accustomed to and in any cost it is evident that things are really not being sorted out as the way they must be in practical sense. Referance: Cameron, Deborah. Sydney Morning Herald. May 11, 2006 Dobbs, Horace Follow A Wild Dolphin ISBN: 0 285 6 2255 2 Eco Pre Meeting, Issue 1 Green, Roedy. Canadian Mind Products. 2006 Doi, Emi and Johnson, Tim. World Posted on Sun. Knight Ridder. 2006 International Fund for Animal Welfare Report, 2006 Read More