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Letter from Japan: Whale of a Problem
The world's dumbest government should be harpooned
By PETER McKILLOP
September
1, 2000
Web posted at 3:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 3:30 a.m. EDT
The world's dumbest government is pulling off yet another whale of a bonehead move. Seawater-sodden fish and agriculture bureaucrats in Japan are insisting that Japan has the right to go out and slaughter whales, those frisky little critters that millions of people -- including a growing number of Japanese -- flock to boats every year to watch.
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Japan's insistence on the right to shoot exploding harpoons into the brains of sperm and minke whales is the equivalent of Kenya or India announcing that they will resume hunting tigers and lions -- and just about as popular in the "greening" of global public opinion. Sure, support for killing whales can be found among indigenous Arctic-dwelling peoples and a few cranky Norwegian fishermen. The rest of the world prefers to watch whales rather than kill them.
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But leave it to Japanese officials to not "get" this most basic rule of public opinion. Worse, they only compound their stupidity with increasingly inane arguments to support a bizarre hunting ritual. Take the letter written this week by Japan's top embassy flack in Washington in response to a story in the Washington Post. The argument for Japan's "sampling" of whales (what is the ocean, a giant sushi restaurant?), says the official, is not as "simple or unidimensional as portrayed" by antiwhaling supporters.
He argues Japan should "scientifically" kill more whales because they eat too many fish. "Scientists have estimated that the current global whale population consumes 280 million to 500 million metric tons of fish and crustacean each year, which is 3 to 6 times more than is consumed by human beings," he says. "Japan's scientific research addresses this and other crucial ecological issues."
To me, the issue is perfectly clear: the practice of slaughtering whales -- which in today's world have absolutely no economic purpose beyond gracing the plates of expensive fish restaurants in Tokyo -- is selfish and barbaric. Luckily, I am not the only one who has had enough of Japan's stance. This week in a remarkably unvarnished attack, the U.S. Department of Commerce led by the Japanese-American Secretary Norman Mineta, sharply criticized Japan for, among other things, using "scientific research" in order to supply restaurants with fresh supplies of whale meat. "This Japanese research hunt not only threatens whales that have been safe from harpoon guns since 1987, it threatens the worldwide ban on commercial whaling," he warned.
Japan, of course, ignored this and other warnings from the United States and is now beginning to pay the price. This week, the U.S. began a campaign to increase international isolation of Japan and warned that it would soon consider economic sanctions as a way of protesting the continued hunt.
Japan's insensitivity towards whales is indicative of a deeper problem. Be it whales, faulty Firestone tires, or the government's refusal to recognize its wartime past, Japan repeatedly shows that it has no understanding of the power of public opinion. Its decision-makers seem to believe that a decision that seems logical in Japan, will seem logical to the rest of the world.
Think again. Particularly when there is a presidential election underway in the U.S. Next to lowering taxes, and kissing babies, there is no more popular political cause than trying to save whales (O.K., saving those cute little white Harp seals with those gooey eyes is even better). Politicians love to be "tough" on saving whales. And this is not just true in the U.S. Whales, Japanese officials must realize, are not "but one element of the marine ecosystem," that eat too much fish. They are also a powerful political symbol. They are granddad of an environmental movement and their continued survival is one of the few success stories of that movement.
Trying to turn back the clock and resume the messy business of skinning whales only further isolates Japan and reinforces a popular conception that it is governed by one the weirdest group of bureaucrats in the world. So as Japan suffers through the humiliation of defending the right to slaughter whales, it should remember Public Relations Rule Number One: Whales should be seen not eaten. It is not only sound environmental policy, but smart politics.
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