Where is the media debate in Japan?

Hi, I am from New Zealand but travel to Japan regularly on business. My wife is Japanese, and we are currently in Nagoya on holiday. She has been here for the past 6 weeks, and I joined her last week.
Recently Japan was in the news in New Zealand (and on CNN and BBC World) regarding it's latest efforts to partially lift the international ban on whaling, primarily by bribing some poor countries to join the IWC and vote with Japan. This has brought international outrage and condemnation.
I called my wife that night and asked what she or her family thought about the news, and what public opinion was generally. She didn't know what I was talking about. She said there was no news coverage as far as she was aware, and certainly no media debate.
Wow! Japan is certainly different from New Zealand. In our democratic country the government's policies are regularly scrutinized by the media,or opposition political parties, and debated in the public arena.
My question is, where is all the debate? Obviously there is a little on this site, but do the majority of Japanese people actually know what is going on?
Where are the opposition political parties? Do they completely agree with government policy over whaling and that the general public don't need to know/ aren't interested in Japans tarnished image?
Any enlightenment would be appreciated.
Regards, BadJonno

Hi BadJonno,

To Japanese people, the whaling debate is not as much as critical as it is in Western media, or more precisely in English language media. If you ask many Japanese about what they think on this matter, you'll find out that most of them don't even know that Japan is still hunting whales.

In fact the whaling debate concerns more the Japanese whaling communities such as Taiji (Wakayama-ken), Wada (Chiba-ken) or Kushiro (Hokkaido) and bureaucrats from the Japanese Agency for Fisheries.
Of course, you may find articles about the results of Japanese scientific whaling and the decisions taken during the IWC plenary sessions every year in the Japanese newspapers. You'll also find articles about some festival (matsuri) or buddhist ceremony (kuyou) dedicated to whales in some part of Japan.

The question is, is there a need for Japan to have a public debate on whaling when most of the news on this subject you may find in Western media is just claptrap from preservationist NGOs who just seek more funds. The fact that you mentionned "Japan bribing some poor countries to make them join the IWC" is interesting as this claim is not founded.

The fact is that whaling is far more a political subject than a ecological one. Politicians in Western countries, esp. in Australia and New Zealand, use it as a way to gain public support before election by showing their concern for "environmental issues".

If you still want an example of an article about whaling from a Japanese newspaper, here's one :
http://www.sanin-chuo.co.jp/newspack/modules/news/article.php?storyid=304384013
It is quite critical...but not in the way you may expect.

By the way, you might feel Japan's image is tarnished by the whaling issue, but it hasn't prevented Japan from staying one of the main economic partner of all the countries who criticise it on this matter (USA, Australia, NZ, UK, etc.).
Besides, it's funny that IFAW recently asked the American government not to back Japan's access to a permanent seat in the Security Council of the UN...although it is USA who mostly need it for strategical reasons.

BadJonno said:

Recently Japan was in the news in New Zealand (and on CNN and BBC World) regarding it's latest efforts to partially lift the international ban on whaling, primarily by bribing some poor countries to join the IWC and vote with Japan. This has brought international outrage and condemnation.

Click to expand...

The ﾂ"old scratch my back, and I`ll scratch your backﾂ" brotherhood and let`s ride to market on the back and blood of each others' slaughtered animals. There we can wheel and deal and the noise of the market will drown out the screams of death from our butchering.

It is no secret Japan and Norway want to increase greater whale catch quotas, and have that agreed to from the member countries of the International Whaling Committee and or CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species).

How nice of Japan to offer developement aid to Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. And they in return vote to overturn the moratorium on whaling for Japan or increase quotas. And, how nice that Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe want to resume the Ivory trade. And, look who votes to support that -- Japan, who will be the sole destination for all ivory sales as agreed to. Oh, how tight, pretty and convenient. African countries with no tradition of a whaling industry wanting whaling, and Japan getting ivory for ornaments made of death and the hanko (signature stamps) to sign all bloody dealings in. Ironic and dispicably funny.

Scratch scratch scratch -- aren`t we a happy bunch bathed in blubber, ivory, and blood! Aid for votes, aid for votes -- all you poor countries who want to develope your wildlife heritage away come hither to stumble down the path of blood money.

If the japanese are anything like some of us on this forum, their just not interested and kinda tired of eco-whale rants when they dont really care.

As has been said, the vast vast vast majority of japanese people didnt even know whaling still occurs, most simply dont care.

Whaling is a political issue, a means for western politicians to win votes, after all, demonising a whole country as evil and portraying yourself as a caring politician to fight this evil is hardly a suprise.

Anyway, if you wish more debate about the whaling subject, the forum has a whaling in japan section that this thread is in, so read around if your interested, some threads have some good points for and against whaling, though you will have to sift through alot of pointless activist drivel, enviromentalism seems more a religious philosophical calling in the west then a sincere political social endevour to maintain the enviroment, so naturally its always going to be hard to get to the facts and proper debate.

If you want, PM Strongvoicesforward for more infomation if your interested in the enviromental activist angle, he seems more then well informed on the activist philosophies and beliefs.

Japanese people are easily swayed (brainwashed) by their gov't, regardless of morality *cough* i.e. believing they were "liberating" Asia from the West.