Japan PM defends 'scientific' whaling

[Barrett808]

Source: The Age

Japan PM defends 'scientific' whaling
Andrew Darby
January 25, 2008

JAPANESE Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has mounted a defence of his Government's Antarctic whaling, in a sign of the hunt's growing domestic sensitivity.

Mr Fukuda was asked about "scientific" whaling in the parliament, the Diet, and also spoke to the BBC in Tokyo as the program came under greater scrutiny in the Japanese media.

He conceded in the Diet that there were cultural differences over whaling, and in the way that Japan hunted and conducted its science.

...

Observers from Greenpeace said it was rare for a Japanese political leader to speak about whaling at all.

...


With the comments coming on top of the involvement of Japan's influential cabinet secretary, the issue appears to have reached a new level.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/japan-pm-defends-scientific-whaling/2008/01/24/1201157560377.html

[xchrom]

1. stop the studity and savagery of whaling -- mr pm -- you won't have to make a statement.

[flvegan]

2. Somebody has to defend a cruel, failing industry.

They've got what, 5 boats running full time, plus another boat trailing the Steve Irwin. Plans to build a new whaling Death Star at some huge cost.

Nice waste of money to get a product you can hardly move.

[Algorem]

3. hey,Japan's headed by a huge a-hole too.

a huge fuck you ta him too.

[Hekate]

4. Very scientifically bringing about the extinction of the whales. nt

[Bonobo]

5. America Defends Right To Rupture Whale Eardrums Resulting in Agonizing Deaths of Entire Families

http://jp.lanaihealthguide.com/healthtalk/display.htm?id=440&hhsid=ea9bc8ee1beb901e91988a24d7791263

Look at that picture of a dolphin with blood leaking from its ears.

This is being done by us in the name of National Security and in violation of our own laws, yet you people want Japan to stop a hunt which is limited in scope specifically so that it does not imperil the population of Minke whales based on the rulings of Australian courts that have no jurisdiction?

Again, did any of you do one single thing to protest Bush's order that the US Navy now ignore a federal Courts ruling to stop the use of this type of sonar? Bah on all of you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/breakfast/2168168.stm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20051125/ai_n15877864

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1008-08.htm

[Barrett808]

6. Indeed terrible. In Seattle, we saw the footage of our poor orcas trying to escape the Shoup's sonar

Marine mammal take must be eliminated in all its forms.

[slowry]

7. I'll never understand posters like you... ever. n/t

[Vogon_Glory]

8. There Is No Longer Any Justification For Whaling

There is no longer any justification for commercial or so-called "scientific" whaling. Most products that could once only be obtained from whales can be grown or sythesized. Moreover, it is increasingly apparent that most surviving whale species are either sentient or near-sentient; we humans no longer have the excuse that we don't know any better.

Most countries have abjured the slave trade; it's time to do the same thing with whaling. Yes, the US was once a whaling nation like Japan, but we also think it's time to stop whaling.

[Bonobo]

9. No Honeymoon for Japan's New Leader

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2007/gb20070924_493570.htm

[freedomnorth]

10. 'Scientific'

"However the 1982 IWC decision allowed 'scientific whaling' to continue during the moratorium..."
"The Japanese Joint Whaling Company was miraculously transformed into the Cetacean Research Institute and its whaling ships suddenly became research vessels."

Clive Ponting: A green history of the world - The Enviroment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations