Japan using tsunami funds to support their whaling industry.

TOKYO (AP) – Japan is spending 2.3 billion yen ($29 million) from its supplementary budget for tsunami reconstruction to fund the country's annual whaling hunt in the Antarctic Ocean, a fisheries official confirmed Thursday.
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Tatsuya Nakaoku, a Fisheries Agency official in charge of whaling, defended the move, saying the funding helps support Japan's whaling industry as a whole, including some whaling towns along the devastated northeastern coast. One ship on the hunt is based in Ishinomaki, a town hit badly by the March 11 tsunami, he said.

USAToday Source

So they are taking $29 million that's supposed to help rebuild the quake and tsunami hit areas of the country and are putting it towards something most of the rest of the world finds repulsive.

They must realize they know they are doing something wrong...because according to this article, they are taking the biggest protection force they ever have to "protect" basically what they are calling research whaling.

I think any country who helped give money to Japan for this disaster should take a hard look at this and put pressure on the Japanese government to try to stop this. They try to get around the international ban on whaling by calling it research. Then sell the excess meat. BUT....most Japanese people don't even eat the whale meat.

Basically, they are protecting an industry that is only a very small portion of the countries economy, the rest of the world hates this industry, and they are using money from the rest of the world meant to help rebuild homes and schools and other infrastructures to do it with. It's not worth it Japan.

The rest of the world should boycott Japanese goods until they stop this. They are making a mockery of the disaster funds they have obtained.

Maybe there's more to it. Maybe they're gonna use the whale bones to build things.

Highly unlikely but its the only use I can think of that would necessitate using the tsunami funds for hunting whales.

reply to post by Fishticon84


I think they are trying to justify it because one of the ships involved is from a town that was hit by the tsunami.
It's my opinion though that NOTHING justifies whaling....

reply to post by webpirate
thought whale wars shut them down or was that just in the artic ocean

reply to post by sd211212


It might have made an impact. But it definitely got their attention. I guess that's why they're taking the largest protection detail with them this year that they have ever used.

Seems they only do the Antarctic "season" though from December into February...at least according to the article.

Originally posted by webpirate

I think they are trying to justify it because one of the ships involved is from a town that was hit by the tsunami.
It's my opinion though that NOTHING justifies whaling....

...and in that town is a processing facility where people worked, and facilities that outfitted the ships. People lost their livelihoods. And just so we're all clear here on ATS (not directing this at you personally, webpirate), those are MY tax dollars at work, not foreign aid money.

The emergency budgets exist to help rebuild ALL of Japan. That includes things that people in other parts of the world might object to. Those objections are quite frankly irrelevant - because where would we stop? Should the government be taken to task for rebuilding hospitals that perform abortions because it offends the sensibilities of right wing christians? Should Japan refuse to provide assistance to video stores that rented porn, because some people find that morally wrong?

Not on my dime, thanks.

What *really* bothers me about this is the way it's being spun in certain segments of the media. Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace - and a handful of their MSM allies have been trying to pose this as siphoning off international donations. And that's just disgusting behavior, frankly.

Especially since this extra funding was openly and publicly debated in October and November before being voted on (it's tied to the the fisheries aid component of the third emergency budget). Objections to this could have been raised in Japan at any point during the debate - but the enviro-lobby sat quiet, let it pass without a whisper, and sent out their press releases to time with Pearl Harbor Day, when the west sees a little spike in anti-Japanese sentiment.



I'm sure it got them quite a few extra donations, though. Because that's what their game is all about.