Japanese whaling in the Southern ocean. ©
Greenpeace |
Japan wants to resume large-scale
commercial whaling and has undertaken a major effort to overturn
the international ban on whaling. Unable to persuade members
of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)
to lift the current moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan
has embarked on a vote buying initiative to manipulate the process
and shift the balance of power at the IWC. |
Japan is gaining allies by recruiting new countries into the commission
which then vote with Japan and help them gain their objective of
resumed commercial whaling. This recruitment process involves offering
fisheries aid to poor coastal countries in exchange for supporting
Japan's whaling policies.
Japan has secured the help of eleven nations at the IWC in this
way: six East Caribbean states, (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica,
Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis),
the Solomon Islands, Guinea, Morocco and Panama. All of these countries
regularly attend IWC meetings and speak in favour of a resumption
of commercial whaling, voting with Japan on all occasions.
At this year's IWC meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan another four countries,
Benin, Gabon, Palau and Mongolia are joining as members and are
expected to vote in support of Japan.
As a result of this strategy Japan has already assembled a blocking
minority within the IWC. This minority prevented the creation of
a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary (SPWS) for the past two years, largely
due to the votes cast against the proposal by Japan and the eastern
Caribbean countries. South Pacific countries have been effectively
denied the right to determine whether whales are protected in the
South Pacific or not.
This situation is now getting worse. As a result of having stepped
up its vote buying offensive, the Government of Japan is on the
verge of securing a majority at the IWC, which would allow it to
sweep away all the current provisions that protect the world's remaining
whales and reintroduce large scale factory ship whaling.
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