Greenpeace - Making Waves: Japan's whaling programme in tatters: Closures, resignations and cancelled celebrations

Whale meat shop Yushin in Asakusa, Tokyo

Japan's whaling industry is descending into deep crisis; this week, Japanese media outlet Nikkei reported that the flagship 'Yushin' whale meat shop and restaurant in Asakusa will close down by 2010. The announcement came via the Institute for Cetacean Research, the agency that conducts Japan's so called "research" whaling programme, and Kyodo Senpaku, which operates the whaling fleet, who cited financial problems as behind the cause, and bizarrely, a shortage of whale meat.

The news of Yushin's closure comes at a portentous time - the whaling fleet is due to depart in the coming days, for its annual hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, amidst stories of financial woes and crewing problems. We've learned that, for the first time, the whaling fleet will not be 100% Japanese-crewed, due to many crew members resigning over the whale meat embezzlement scandal, exposed by a Greenpeace undercover investigation in May of this year. Reports have also reached us of the possible cancellation of the traditional high-profile departure ceremony in the fleet's home port of Shimonoseki. Instead, the whaling fleet is expected to depart later this week, from another port, and seen off only by families of crew members, and whaling officials. This may be part of the same "rationalisation plan", as the Yushin closure, which also mentioned the future cancellation of open-boat departure ceremonies.

The last remnants of the whaling industry have enduring a glut of bad news recently. Last week, Brian reported on Norwegian whaler Olav Olavsen, captain of well known whaling vessel Nybræna, who has decided to stop whaling. A week earlier, I wrote about how the refuelling and whale meat transport ship for Japan's whaling fleet, the Oriental Bluebird had been deflagged and fined, after a legal ruling by Panamanian authorities.

I was in Tokyo in May of this year, and paid a visit to the Yushin whale meat shop. It's in a covered market area, near the tourist-thronged shrines at Asakusa. On first glance, it looks like any kind of high-end food shop, but a second look shows an incongruous cuddly blue whale in the window, above stacks of tinned whale meat. Inside, a huge mural of a whale overlooks a chest freezer of various whale meat cuts. Around the corner was the entrance to the restaurant, which I didn't visit. Apart from a few curious passersby, there didn't seem to be much business going on for a Saturday afternoon - the two staff members look visibly bored; and one was spending his time sending text messages.

Closing down Yushin appears to be a bit of common sense from the whaling industry - any business owner knows that if your enterprise is universally condemned, you're unable to hold onto your staff and almost no one wants to buy your product, then its time to get the hell out of that business! Seafood corporation Nissui Nissui realised this in April 2006, when it pulled out of whaling for good.

However, according to Nikkei, the whaling industry is blaming "lack of supply" for its misfortunes. This appears to be some rather desperate wishful thinking; according to Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, there was 2800 tonnes of whale meat in storage at the beginning of 2008, which had increased to 4200 tonnes by September. Does that qualify as a shortage?

As you might have recently read on our main website, the Greenpeace campaign to end whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary has increasingly focused on stopping whaling from inside Japan itself, where 71% of the public do not support Japan's whaling programme. Afer the Greenpeace investigation into embezzlement of whale meat from the Nisshin Maru, Japanese authorities initiated a politically-motivated prosecution of two Greenpeace activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the Tokyo Two.

Junichi and Toru, who intercepted the stolen whale meat and delivered to the Tokyo Public Prosecutor, have been denied their liberty for 145 days now, and are due to go on trial early next year; they face up to 10 years in jail.

Amnesty International has denounced their arrest as politically motivated, and in a periodic evaluation completed last month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee severely reprimanded the Japanese government for the "unreasonable restrictions placed on freedom of expression" in Japan. It also condemned the abuse of trespass laws by Japanese police to harass activists who are critical of government policy.

Greenepeace is going keep Japan's whaling establishment under pressure - the whale meat market has clearly collapsed, and the stigma of scandal and corruption is making whaling an unattractive and considerably less lucrative industry to work for. The extreme reaction to our investigation indicates that the whaling industry's days are numbered...

News story: Japan's whaling programme in disarray »

Photo: Yushin whale meat shop, Asakusa, Tokyo, to be closed in 2010 » Dave Walsh