November 5th, 2018

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Takamori Yoshikawa

• The Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) recognized by consensus that Japan’s introduction from the sea of sei whales was not in compliance with the Convention that forbids commercial distribution of species listed in the Appendix I, at its 70th meeting held in Sochi, Russia, on October 2nd.
• At the Standing Committee, the government of Japan, acknowledging the content of the report submitted by the CITES Secretariat, committed to take remedial actions by February 2019, report the measures to be assessed by the next Standing Committee, and not authorize any certificates for introduction from the sea of sei whales.
• Japan has harvested a total of 1622 sei whales to date from the high seas in the western North Pacific, landing approximately 1400 tons of sei whale meat every year for consumption, which are vacuum packaged and frozen onboard, in addition to specimens used for scientific research. This practice that has been in place since 2002, however, is now agreed it is a violation of the Convention.

  Read more: Stop Issuing “Introduction from the Sea” Certificates; Stop Distributing Sei Whale Meat

You can download pdf file of following leaflet.: (250KB)

Read more: We Oppose Japan’s “IWC Reform” Proposal

Prime Minister of Japan
Shinzo Abe

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan
Taro Kono

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan
Ken Saito

Minister of Environment of Japan
Masaharu Nakagawa

Most of the member countries at the committee denounced Japan, saying that bringing sei whale meat into the country is a violation of the treaty, and that this warrants a measure such as suspension of trade. None of the members supported Japan’s claims that it does not constitute a violation of the treaty.

The final decision will be taken at the Standing Committee meeting in October 2018. By the next Committee, in order to verify whether any violation of the treaty has occurred, the Secretariat will ask additional questions of Japan regarding those Japan previously failed to answer. Upon receiving the answers, the Secretariat will dispatch an investigation team to Japan.

Read more: Joint Statement NGOs call on Japanese Government to: Comply with CITES and Stop Distributing Sei Wh...

An interpellation regarding Japanese whaling at the Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by Mr. Taro Yamamoto, a member of House of Councilors.

【Taro Yamamoto Official Article】

Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Jun 13 2017.