Grim Planet

Greenpeace activists arrested in Japan over stolen whale meat

// June 20th, 2008 // Animals, Environment, News

Two Greenpeace activists have been arrested in Tokyo in the wake of last month’s “stolen whale meat” scandal.

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki have been arrested on suspicion of breaking into the offices of a courier company and stealing a 20Kg box of whale meat worth up to 350,000 yen (around AU$3,400 / US$3,200).

The meat had been smuggled ashore by workers from Japanese whaling factory ship, Nisshin Maru, and was being shipped to their houses by the courier company. Smuggled is a loose term here, however, as so much meat was being shipped (hundreds of kilos per-worker at times) officials on the ship from the company that runs the operation, Kyodo Senpaku, couldn’t possibly have not known about it.

Crew members on board the Nisshin Maru were openly taking the best cuts of whale meat during the so-called scientific hunt, smuggling it ashore disguised as personal luggage and then passing it to traders for illegal sales.

Working from information given by former and current Kyodo Senpaku employees, Greenpeace documented the off loading of smuggled whale meat into a special truck, in full view of Kyodo Senpaku officials and crew members when the Nisshin Maru docked on April 15th, this year. The consignment was documented by Greenpeace activists once it left the ship and tracked to a depot in Tokyo. One of four boxes destined for the same private address was then intercepted in order to verify the contents and establish the fraud.

Greenpeace has already admitted to stealing the meat as part of an undercover investigation into the illegal trade, and has handed the meat over to Japan’s Public Prosecutor as evidence of Kyodo Senpaku’s shoddy operations.

It’s interesting to see Greenpeace activists getting arrested while the prosecutor is expected to be ready to drop the charge against the whaling ship crew members – at least according to the Associate Press.

We’ve uncovered a scandal involving powerful forces in the Japanese government that benefit from whaling, and it’s not surprising they are striking back,” said Greenpeace Executive Director Jun Hoshikawa in a news release about the arrests.

“What is surprising is that these activists, who are innocent of any crime, would be arrested for returning whale meat that was stolen from Japanese taxpayers by crew of the whaling fleet. In whose interest were these arrests made? Because it would appear to us that this is an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for a scandal.”

At the end of the day, Japan’s government-backed, pseudo-scientific whaling operation is only in business thanks to massive taxpayer subsidies. There are warehouses full of unsold whale meat, and as the practice is damaging Japan’s reputation as much as it is the whale population, one would think it is time to call it a day. Even if you look on it as a tradition, what’s traditional about sailing half way around the world to conduct “research”, in a huge factory ship, in a whale sanctuary?

Image: © Greenpeace

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