Before Chinese demand for ivory began driving the black market and illegal killing of tens of thousands of elephants each year, it was Japan’s market for hanko, personal seals used to sign contracts, that fueled the ivory trade. For at least a thousand years, they’ve been made in Japan out of a variety of materials. […]
Tag: japan
Japanese aquariums vote to stop buying Taiji dolphins
Aquariums in Japan have voted to stop buying live dolphins from the town of Taiji, where the annual slaughter of hundreds of cetaceans has drawn widespread condemnation, after being threatened with expulsion from the world’s leading zoo organisation. The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (Jaza) voted to stay part of the World Association of […]
Japan’s whaling has produced more sushi than science
In 1994, member governments of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the whaling regulatory body, agreed to create a vast sanctuary in the Southern Ocean. There, commercial whaling would be barred so whales hunted nearly to extinction could replenish their numbers in the cold, nutrient-rich waters and thrive again. The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was designed […]
Norway whale catch reaches highest number since 1993
Fishermen in Norway have caught 729 whales this year, the highest number since it resumed the controversial practice in defiance of international pressure, industry sources said on Monday. “The season is more or less finished and it’s been very good,” said Svein Ove Haugland, deputy director of the Norwegian Fishermen’s Sales Organisation. The eventual figure […]
POLL: Should the Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji Cove be stopped?
The controversial six-month dolphin hunting season began on Monday in the infamous town of Taiji, but bad weather would delay any killing, a local official told AFP. The annual catch, in which people from the southwestern town corral hundreds of dolphins into a secluded bay and butcher them, was thrust into the global spotlight in […]
Japan kills 30 minke whales in first hunt since UN court order
Japan has killed 30 minke whales off its north-east coast, in the first hunt since the UN’s top court ordered Tokyo to stop killing the animals in the Antarctic, the government said. The Japanese whaling fleet that left the north-eastern fishing town of Ayukawa in April completed its mission last week, the country’s fisheries agency […]
Slaughterhouse Said to Process “Horrifying” Number of Whale Sharks Annually
Whale sharks are being slaughtered: That’s the shocking news from a report issued by WildLifeRisk, a nongovernmental organization. A three-year investigation provides evidence that a factory in southeastern China is cutting up about 600 of the 21-ton (19-tonne) fish a year. It’s illegal—whale sharks are a protected species under Chinese and international law. But it’s […]
Brass monkeys: Japanese macaques chill out in hot springs – in pictures
If you thought it was cold this this morning, spare a thought for these primates This article was written and published by the Guardian.