Japanese Whaling

[Sebastiaan56]

Hi everone,

Ideas needed. The Japanese whaling fleet are off to hunt in the exclusion zone again. They are after 1000 Minke's this season. To my simple mind this is not OK.

I am led to understand that the Japanese as a nation dont know how much other nations dont like it because if they did they would probaly lean on their hunters to stop.

How to communicate to the Japanese people? Ideas please, Im not into communicating with officials / companies, just people. Im thinking a grassroots communication to Japanese citizens, but how?

Sebastiaan

[Ashore]

The last thing that actually worked with them was a B29

[Brickie]

Hi everone,

Ideas needed. The Japanese whaling fleet are off to hunt in the exclusion zone again. They are after 1000 Minke's this season. To my simple mind this is not OK.

I am led to understand that the Japanese as a nation dont know how much other nations dont like it because if they did they would probaly lean on their hunters to stop.

How to communicate to the Japanese people? Ideas please, Im not into communicating with officials / companies, just people. Im thinking a grassroots communication to Japanese citizens, but how?

Sebastiaan

Do a website, translating it into Japanese would be the problem though.

[obee60]

You're absolutley right Sebastiaan56. If the general population of Japan knew how much we loath whaling, they might actually put pressure on the government to stop it.

How to communicate that message - I don't know. How about a letter drop from a B29

[bitingmidge]

Become a spammer.

The anti whaling lobby is doing fine its best to get the message across, but an individual can fight unfair.

Seek out every personal website, blog, myspace page and school you can, and leave a simple and true message.

Something like, "Whaling is the sole cause of climate change, HIV, and most incurable diseases. If it's allowed to continue, we will all die."

That should leave them thinking on myspace.

Thinking about banning you probably, but at least you tried.

P

[astrid]

so, If someone who knows how, can put somthing really effective on you tube in japan, the young ones might put presure on the old folk and the gov.
After speaking (a difficult task) with young japanese, most are willing environmentalists but dont get the info from the west because there is a huge language barrier.

astrid

[Schtoo]

IOn the whaling, I don't like it even a little bit. I have not tried whale meat, and will not try it. I will not condone it, and I will also say to anyone who mentions it how unnecessary it is, and what a foolish pursuit it is to continue to do it today.

But...

It is a traditional food in Japan. It would be not dissimilar to telling the French to stop eating frogs, snails and truffles. Tell the Americans to not eat buffalo for any reason. Tell the Chinese to stick to cows, pigs and chickens. Tell the Italians they can only eat old worn out dairy cows. No more shark fin soup (make whale hunting look positively delightful) or foie gras for anyone. Tell the islanders to leave the turtles alone, and the English to stay away from rabbits. Tell the vegetarians that they can't have their tofu and beans.

Whale meat is not a common thing, and very few people buy it (although it is widely available.). What annoys me is the continual mention of 'Scientific purposes', instead of coming straight out and saying 'we are going to eat them'. I think that once those folks who ate it often (hunger will make you eat anything) die off, then the market will go away and the need for hunting will also go away. It could be the money invested, it could be the weight of tradition. It could be that those who do eat the stuff like to tell those who say they can't where to get off.

I guess at the end of it, I don't like it, but I don't dislike it enough to get rabid about it simply because it's not a simple case of "We are right, they are wrong". Maybe closer to "We are probably right, but are they completely wrong?"

[jow104]

Ok Lets Not Have To Close This Thread. You Know What Is Meant.

[Sebastiaan56]

Hi everyone,

Midge, I couldnt be a spammer, where is the cred? I dont see it as a right and wrong issue, I dislike being blatantly lied to, there is no need to kill whales for food.

Here is the plot, a Japanese language You Tube video and website. My understanding is that the Japanese are very insular so getting inside the culture is the issue. Ill PM Stu and see what comes out of it, I dont know enough about Japanese culture to formulate a sensible strategy.

Sebastiaan

[astrid]

hi sebastiaan
your idea re mailing stu is a good one
my partner spent some time in japan and apparently most whale meat ends up as fertilizer.
I have heard that the gov wont move because the investment in the fleet has to be concidered?

Astrid

[dazzler]

But...

It is a traditional food in Japan. It would be not dissimilar to telling the French to stop eating frogs, snails and truffles.

No problem with that, as long as they hunt them traditionally......lets see a junk or whatever they used to use, take on the southern ocean

No eperb, no sat phone, no nuttin!

What a bunch of - mmmmmmmm, whats the word......

[astrid]

get a collection going and buy time on one of those huge screens in shibuya.
start with soft scenes and whale music/switch to the slaughter.
greenpeace probably already tried, but the japanese, being a polite gentle culture these days, may not be receptive to this sort of western shock tactics

astrid

[Dean]

Easy,

Just paint U.S. nuclear submarine markings on the whales

[Pusser]

There is a story going round which may be an urban myth that whale meat is not a "traditional" japanese food. They may have eaten small dolphins etc but do not have atradition of open boat whaling. The story is that it was introduced after the 2nd world war as an industry and the Fleet investment started at that time (encouraged by Macarthur). It is sort of as traditional as the California Roll.

[Master Splinter]

The earliest mention of whaling in Japanese culture comes from the 8th century. There are numerous mentions of whaling in historical literature from the 1600s. Harpoons came into use in the late 1500s.

In the aftermath of WWII, whales were a cheap source of protein and became a large part of the Japanese diet.

Whaling is subsidised by the Japanese government and is not an economically important activity.

There are concerns that whale meat tends to have very high levels of some toxic compounds such as PCBs, mercury and dioxin. Personally, I think a scare campaign pointing out the risks of these to the food-quality conscious Japanese would be a good way of decreasing demand for whale meat. That, or just keep donating to the Sea Shepherd Society. (they ram whaling ships)