The Sunday Times reported this week that Japan, in an effort to secure votes to allow commercial whaling, has bribed small countries with aid packages, plus spending money and prostitutes for visiting officials.
Officials with six countries — St Kitts and Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Ivory Coast and Guinea — were willing to negotiate with an undercover Times reporter posing as a lobbyist, and some revealed their similar dealings with Japan.
“We support Japan because of what they give us,” said one senior fisheries official for the Marshall Islands said. The Times also reported that officials are given cash — up to $1,000 a day — in envelopes, and call girls are made available in their hotels.
Japan, the Marshall Islands and Kiribati have all denied the allegations.
Japan is making a push with the International Whaling Commission to legalize commercial whaling. Such practice has been banned since 1986, but whaling countries (namely Japan, Norway and Iceland) use a “scientific research” loophole to kill about 3,000 whales a year. Despite only being allowed to kill whales for scientific purposes, whale meat can be found in Japanese markets and restaurants.
Japan has proposed closing the loophole and allowing legalized, regulated commercial whaling, limited to killing 1,800 whales a year.
The IWC vote will take place next week on Morocco.
Japanese whaling officials have called one species the “cockroach of the ocean.”
