VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKO #2073/01 1072301
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 172301Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1058
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
INFO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 0403
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1454
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0864
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1602
RUEHRK/AMEMBASSY REYKJAVIK 0118
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 1057
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0572
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 3553

UNCLAS TOKYO 002073 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR D, G and OES/OA - MHAYES AND EAP/J - KMIDHA 
USDOC FOR NOAA/NMFS - US IWC COMMISSIONER HOGARTH AND 
McCARTHY 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EFIS KSCA IWC JA ETRD
SUBJECT: WHALING: PRIVATE SECTOR GETS OUT OF WHALING 
         BUSINESS BUT NO CHANGE IN GOJ POLICY 
 
REF: A) 05 TOKYO 2193; B) 05 TOKYO 2932; 
 
     C) 05 TOKYO 6131 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  Five private fisheries companies that own Kyodo 
Senpaku, the owner and operator of the vessels used in 
Japan's lethal research whaling program, have 
collectively decided to give away their shares to several 
public-interest organizations, including the Institute of 
Cetacean Research (ICR).  GOJ officials and other 
stakeholders in the Japanese whaling community claim the 
move underpins the public nature of Japan's whaling 
program, which they claim is supported by the entire 
nation.  No changes in Japan's lethal research whaling 
program are expected, although the credibility of Japan's 
call for a resumption of commercial whaling may be 
further undermined.  The real motive from the 
shareholders is their long-standing desire to free 
themselves from the hook of anti-whaling NGO pressure and 
its negative effect on their globally expanding food 
business.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
Shares Donated, Research Whaling "Belongs to Nation" 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2.  On March 24, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd., which owns 
and operates the fleets used by Japan's lethal research 
whaling program, announced that its five parent companies 
would donate their shares to several public-interest 
organizations, including the ICR.  Kazuo Yamamura, 
President of Kyodo Senpaku, explained at a press 
conference that the move demonstrates the public nature 
of Japan's research whaling activities and aims at 
gaining a broader support base from the public for its 
expanded lethal whaling program, JARPA II (refs). 
 
¶3.  Kyodo Senpaku's 5,730 shares were each valued at Yen 
10,000 (USD 84), with a total value of only Yen 57.3 
million (USD 490,000).  The current shareholders are five 
private fisheries and food processing/distribution 
companies:  Nissui (31.9 percent share), Kyokuyo and its 
subsidiary Kyokuyo Suisan (31.9 percent collectively), 
Taiyo A&F (percentage not disclosed) and Delmar 
Development (percentage not disclosed).  According to 
Tadashi Tomisawa at the Accounting Division of Kyodo 
Senpaku, only the IRC has been designated as one of the 
share recipients.  Other potential candidates are still 
under negotiation.  He said the company hopes to complete 
the process of the shareholder changeover by June or 
July. 
 
¶4.  According to Mr. Shimizu, Public Relations Manager at 
Nissui, the largest shareholder of Kyodo Senpaku, the 
company respects the decision by Kyodo Senpaku and has no 
intention of selling its shares to the public 
organizations.  Shimizu, who refused to reveal his first 
name, explained by way of background that Kyodo Senpaku 
took on Nissui's former whaling crew members when Japan 
withdrew from commercial whaling in 1987, so Nissui 
considers it a fair trade-off to give away its shares 
which are valued at Yen 18 million (USD 152,000).  In a 
press conference on April 6, Naoya Kakizoe, President and 
CEO of Nissui, announced that the company would cease 
operations selling canned whale meat as well, which means 
an end to the company's whaling-related business 
altogether. 
 
Global Food Company Chose "Harmonious Approach" 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶5.  Shimizu emphasized that the company wants to keep a 
low-profile on the issue, as it was torn between the 
GOJ's whaling policy and the company's own expanding 
global business in the U.S., Europe, New Zealand and 
South America, which has required it to take a more 
"harmonious" approach in line with other countries' local 
values toward whaling.  Asked if the company had been 
pressured by Greenpeace and other NGOs to divest its 
shares of Kyodo Senpaku and related whale meat 
businesses, Shimizu admitted that Greenpeace had launched 
"fierce attacks" on its U.S. subsidiaries, though he 
declined to give more specifics. 
 
¶6.  Mizuki Takana, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace Japan, 
told us that Greenpeace International had published 
reports on its website about Nissui's involvement in 
whaling from late November to December 2005 as part of 
its campaign called "Defending Our Oceans".  This led 
some grocery store chains in California to exclude 
products of Nissui's U.S. subsidiary Gorton's, a frozen 
food company, which Takana believes was the major factor 
in Nissui's decision to relinquish its shares.  When 
Takana met with Nissui representatives in mid-November 
2005, they told her that canned whale meat does not sell 
well and that the company had no intention of getting 
involved in whaling again, even if commercial whaling 
resumed.  Junko Sakuma, a journalist and long-time 
whaling industry watcher, assumes that Nissui would 
probably have encouraged the other shareholders to take 
similar action together -- just "donating" shares to 
"public organizations" -- so they could be completely off 
the hook of anti-whaling pressure, to avoid further 
hurting their brand image in both Japan and anti-whaling 
countries. 
 
Implications: No Change for Research Whaling 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  Japan's major players involved in whaling uniformly 
argue that the shareholder change will have no major 
impact on the operations of the current Japanese lethal 
research whaling program.  Haruo Tominaga at the Far Seas 
Fisheries Division at the Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ) 
said that the move would simply make it clear that the 
lethal research whaling program is backed by the entire 
nation.  Hiroshi Hatanaka, Director General of the ICR, 
told EST FSN that even before the move, "we heard that 
Kyodo Senpaku had never paid dividends to its 
shareholders", so he believes the money flow -- the GOJ 
pays subsidies to the ICR, which the ICR then pays to 
Kyodo Senpaku for vessel fees including labor costs for 
the crew -- will remain unchanged.  Kyodo Senpaku will 
continue to be the owner and operator of all the vessels. 
Yoshihiko Tashiro of Tonichi Company, one of the GOJ- 
accredited whale meat wholesale/processing companies, 
also said that his company had not heard from the GOJ of 
any possible changes to the industry.  With regard to the 
increased amount of whale meat expected from JARPA II, 
Yamamura at Kyodo Senpaku stated in a press conference on 
March 24 that the company plans to expand its business in 
whale meat processing and distribution by establishing 
its own subsidiary, according to the March 27 issue of 
the Minato Shimbun, a fisheries trade newspaper. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
End of Commercial Whaling? More of the Same 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Asked about possible impacts on Japan's desire to 
resume commercial whaling, Tominaga at the FAJ said that 
it was "not the time to comment on that".  But veteran 
observers of the whaling scene interpret the latest 
developments as virtually signaling the end of any 
realistic quest for commercial whaling in Japan.  Shigeko 
Misaki, an independent whaling analyst and former adviser 
to the Japan Whaling Association, said that "no one could 
counter the argument that there are no longer any germs 
of commercial whaling in Japan".  Tetsuji Ida, staff 
writer for Kyodo News, however, questions whether this 
really means a victory for environmentalists, as 
Greenpeace claims, since nothing has really changed. 
Sakuma had a similar view and argues that the current 
scale and structure of Japan's whaling operations have 
reached an optimal state for the industry in terms of 
capacity and supply/demand.  The status quo currently 
serves the vested interests of the Japanese whaling 
community quite nicely, she says.  Therefore, we can 
expect no changes in Japan's lethal research program. 
The annual GOJ subsidy to the IRC of Yen 900 million (USD 
7.6 million) is unlikely to become a target of PM 
Koizumi's budget-cutting reform efforts either.  Sakuma 
recounted that, when the Ministry of Finance once tried 
to cut FAJ/ICR's whaling subsidy, it was strongly opposed 
and written off by pressure from the ruling Liberal 
Democratic Party's Whaling Caucus. 
 
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COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9.  The shareholder change seems to simply reinforce the 
status quo in Japan.  While prospects for a resumption of 
commercial whaling appear ever more dim, Japan's lethal 
research whaling program is likely to become even more 
entrenched while being repackaged as a public good that 
benefits the entire nation.  Japan's public stance on 
whaling will remain unchanged, with its industry taking 
on a simpler structure, less vulnerable to anti-whaling 
NGOs. 
 
SCHIEFFER