VZCZCXYZ0025
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKO #2965/01 1502303
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 302303Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2630
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
INFO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 0417
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1501
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0886
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1659
RUEHRK/AMEMBASSY REYKJAVIK 0131
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 1076
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0585
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 3655

UNCLAS TOKYO 002965 
 
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: PRESS ON JAPAN'S POSITION AT IWC 
MEETING AND SEAMEN'S UNION DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A) 05 TOKYO 2193; B) 05 TOKYO 2932; 
     C) 05 TOKYO 6131; D) 06 TOKYO 2073; 
     E) 06 TOKYO 2229; F) 06 TOKYO 2848 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  According to press reporting, on May 24, Japan's 
ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held a joint 
meeting of its fisheries divisions and pro-whaling caucus 
to discuss Japan's goals and strategies for this year's 
International Whaling Commission (IWC) Annual Meeting in 
St. Kitts and Nevis.  Toward its central goal of 
"normalizing" the IWC, Japan plans to set up a new 
framework outside the IWC made up of countries that 
support the resumption of commercial whaling and will 
announce the plan in St. Kitts.  An All Japan Seamen's 
Union (JSU) senior official, who attended the LDP 
meeting, told Embassy during its annual "demarche" that 
the idea behind the framework was to unify pro-whaling 
country policies, while working in parallel with the IWC. 
END SUMMARY 
 
-------------------------------- 
"New Framework" To Normalize IWC 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  According to the May 25 issue of the Suisan Keizai 
Shimbun, a fisheries trade newspaper, the Fisheries 
Agency of Japan (FAJ) recently briefed the LDP on Japan's 
goals for St. Kitts: to complete the RMS, "normalize" the 
IWC, and adopt a resolution condemning harassment 
activities by NGOs against whaling vessels (refs), as 
well as other agenda items.  The Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs (MOFA) then provided an overview of IWC signatory 
country likely positions/possible voting and handed out a 
list, showing the "pro whaling" camp with 34 and the anti- 
whaling group with 31 votes.  The Mainichi Shimbun also 
reported that the GOJ decided to set up, outside the IWC, 
a new framework consisting of pro-whaling countries and 
to unveil the plan at the IWC Meeting.  The paper 
reported that the aim was to have the outcome of the 
discussions on the Japanese proposal reflected in the IWC 
and quoted a senior FAJ official as saying "we want to 
break the rigid situation in the IWC." 
 
¶3.  Embassy's informal translation of the article in the 
Suisan Keizai Shimbun follows. 
 
Begin Text: 
 
May 25, 2006 The Suisan Keizai Shimbun P.1 
 
LDP Joint Meeting: Japan's Position for IWC Strategy 
Considered 
 
A joint meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)'s 
Fisheries Division, Fisheries General Survey Committee, 
Research Commission on Fishery Policies, and 
Parliamentary League in Support of Whaling was held on 
May 24 at the LDP headquarters and considered strategies 
for the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Scientific 
Committee of May 26 and the IWC Annual Meeting from June 
16 in St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as other agenda items. 
 
Shinichi Suzuki, Chairman of the Research Commission on 
Fishery Policies and the Parliamentary League in Support 
of Whaling, reiterated Japan's position and stressed, 
"Hard-line whaling countries say that they won't allow 
even a single whale to be taken (NOTE: This is obviously 
an error in the article - "whaling countries" must be 
"anti-whaling countries" END NOTE).  Japan's position is 
to use only stock-abundant whales and conserve endangered 
species based on scientific facts.  Food culture should 
be respected by each other and must not be imposed on 
others." 
 
The Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ) listed specific goals 
for the IWC and said it will make efforts to archive 
them: 1) complete RMS and normalize the IWC (NOTE: a 
paper handed out to the participating LDP Diet members by 
the FAJ, which we obtained from Kyodo News and JSU, says 
"as we need to break through the IWC deadlock, we will 
cooperate with countries concerned and announce that we 
will hold a meeting outside the IWC to normalize the 
IWC."  END NOTE); 2) given that vessels of JARPA II, 
which returned to Japan in April, had faced vicious 
harassment from anti-whaling groups, such as bumping the 
ship's hull, win a resolution to require a voluntary ban 
of such dangerous actions; 3) explain scientifically that 
it is possible to conduct sustainable whaling of 
Antarctic minke whales, whose stock will be re-estimated 
(NOTE: the handout says "as it is likely that the new 
stock amount estimate of Antarctic mike whales will be 
recalculated, we will explain scientifically that its 
sustainable whaling is possible even based on the new 
estimate. END NOTE); 4) set a catch limit for coastal 
whaling in Japan, abolish whale sanctuaries and block the 
setting of additional sanctuaries, etc. 
 
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) explained the 
landscape of IWC signatory countries and announced that 
it will continue its effort to secure a majority of pro- 
sustainable whaling countries.  Minoru Morimoto, IWC 
Commissioner for Japan, said, "We all will work together 
to advocate sustainable whaling again this year." 
 
Upper House member Yoshimasa Hayashi debriefed on the 
results of his discussions with U.S. IWC Commissioner 
Hogarth and other representatives from May 2-3 in the 
U.S.  He appreciated the U.S. down-to-earth attitude 
towards research whaling and suggested the necessity to 
come up with a U.S.-Japan joint proposal and take in 
moderate countries to normalize the IWC.  In regard to 
the aboriginal quota to be discussed at next year's IWC 
Meeting in Alaska, he told the U.S. representatives that 
he hopes it is not going to be like the Shimonoseki IWC 
Meeting in 2002.  The U.S. agreed that IWC normalization 
is an important issue and would continue to hold a 
dialogue with Japan, although the U.S. has some different 
opinions from Japan's. 
 
Kazutaka Sangen, Mayor of Daiji Town in Wakayama 
Prefecture and Chairman of the National Liaison-Council 
of Local Governments Protecting Whaling, petitioned for 
early resumption of commercial whaling and an agreement 
on a minke whale catch limit for coastal whaling areas as 
well as other requests.  Keiichi Nakajima, President of 
the Japan Whaling Association, also made requests such as 
continuing to conduct research whaling, resuming coastal 
whaling, and preventing obstructions to research whaling. 
 
Diet members opined one after another that Japan should 
more strongly emphasize its affirmation about sustainable 
use of cetaceans, protest against obstructionist 
activities against research whaling, and focus on 
attaining a majority of countries supporting Japan at the 
IWC.  There were also other opinions, such as Japan 
should scientifically investigate and address the problem 
of the recently exploding collisions of whales and super 
high-speed boats and prove that whales have been 
increasing. 
 
End Text 
 
------------------------- 
Seamen's Union "Demarche" 
------------------------- 
 
¶4.  As part of its annual pre-IWC meeting "demarche" to 
25 Tokyo-based embassies, the All Japan Seamen's Union's 
(JSU) Suezo Kondo, Secretary for the Bureau of Fisheries 
and Toshikazu Suzuki, Assistant to the Vice Director, 
visited EST Deputy and EST FSN on May 25 to preview the 
69,000-member (29,000 Japanese and 40,000 foreign 
members) organization's position for this year's IWC 
meeting.  Kondo stressed that Japan's most important 
issue will be to "normalize" the IWC.  The JSU's position 
paper states that "what the IWC is now called for the 
most is that the IWC regains its adequate function and 
all member states should discuss each other in good faith 
on how we sustainably utilise the marine resources of our 
collective possession now and in the future." 
 
¶5.  With regard to the "new framework", Kondo, who 
attended the LDP briefings, said that informal gatherings 
of pro-whaling countries have regularly been held in the 
form of dinners and parties but there has never been a 
situation where all pro-whaling countries got together at 
one sitting.  Asked about the results of JARPA II, he 
stressed that Fin and Humpback whales were "visibly 
increasing".  Kondo also said that many whalers were now 
fresh out of fisheries high schools -- seventy percent of 
the crew is in now their 20s -- and that whaling was 
needed to maintain the livelihoods of many people. 
 
¶6.  Text of the JSU's Position Statement for the St. 
Kitts IWC Annual Meeting (English version as delivered): 
 
OPENING STATEMENT 
TO THE 58TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE IWC 
 
All Japan Seamen's Union 
 
The All Japan Seamen's Union (JSU), established in 1945, 
is the sole nation-wide industrial trade union of 
maritime workers in Japan.  All our activities are based 
on freedom and democracy as the keynote and our 
objectives are to improve the living conditions and 
status of our members and to promote sound development of 
shipping, fishery, port and other related industries 
through the solidarity of all the union members.  The JSU 
has been affiliated with the International Transport 
Workers' Federation (ITF) since 1950 and is actively 
taking part in the International union movement to 
establish a fair and decent framework of working 
condition at sea in cooperation with maritime workers in 
shipping, fisheries and port industries worldwide. 
 
On the opening of the 58th Annual Meeting of the IWC, the 
JSU would expressly like to define its standpoint in the 
following.  The JSU also urge the Chairperson of the 
plenary and distinguished delegates from each government 
to understand duly whaling issue in the context of 
International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling 
(ICRW) and the outcome of scientific research, and to 
discuss whaling issue neither in political or economic 
calculation, nor in emotional incentives. 
 
In the severe food shortages in Japan after World War II, 
the JSU saw many members off sailing out to the Antarctic 
Ocean to catch whales, hoping to contribute to the supply 
of protein foods to the people and rehabilitation of the 
country's economy.  There were also many members engaging 
in whaling related industries on coastal areas.  All 
those have gone as a result of the commercial whaling 
moratorium adopted at the IWC in 1982 by the majority in 
which the anti-whaling countries ignored the review of 
the IWC Scientific Committee and exercised the majority 
rule as a brutal tool.  We will never forget the fact 
that considerable members who had engaged on whaling as 
an essence of subsistence were sobbingly compelled to 
quit since 1987, as the commercial whaling was finally 
ceased. 
 
Currently, some members of the JSU have been engaged in 
the Japan's Research Programme in the Antarctic (JARPA) 
and the Japan's Research Programme in the North Pacific 
(JARPN) that are in practice in accordance with Article 
VIII of the ICRW since 1987 and 1994 respectively.  The 
data collected in the above research programmes, which 
involve sighting survey and also a small take of whales, 
are highly appreciated and strongly supported by the IWC 
Scientific Committee.  The scientific data clearly 
justifies that the argument of the anti-whaling countries 
is baseless and unreasonable, and therefore would 
internationally not be acceptable anymore. 
 
Although the second-stage of Japan_fs Research Programme 
in the Antarctic (JARPA II) resumed from November 2005, 
such commencing with the willful collision against the 
whale research mother ship _gNisshin-maru_h, a great 
number of acts of sabotage by collaboration of notorious 
radical environmental groups, "Greenpeace" and "Sea 
Shepherd Conservation Society", were hazardous terrorism 
deliberated against research ships, and shall violate the 
provisions of "Law for Preventing Collisions at Sea" and 
threaten safety of life and safe operation of ships, 
which cannot be accepted in the world.  Therefore, in 
this Annual meeting, JSU strongly urge the distinguished 
delegates to condemn these acts of sabotage which are 
against humanity. 
 
The collected scientific data through the above research 
also clarified that overprotection of the whales which is 
on the top of the marine food chain at sea causes a huge 
decrease of other marine resources.  We all should 
realise that the management of whale stock in a proper 
manner based on scientific data and promotion of 
sustainable utilization are the best possible way to 
preserve the marine ecosystem. 
 
We also urge the distinguished delegates to go through 
once again the provisions of ICRW and to reaffirm that 
the preamble of the ICRW states that the Convention is 
"to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks 
and thus make possible the orderly development of the 
whaling industry".  What the IWC is now called for the 
most is that the IWC regains its adequate function and 
all member states should discuss each other in good faith 
on how we can sustainably utilise the marine resources of 
our collective possession now and in the future. 
 
Lastly, we strongly urge all the member states delegates 
to make every effort with a view to establishing the 
Revised Management Scheme (RMS) pursuant to the ICRW's 
objectives during this annual conference and to finalise 
the moratorium. 
 
END TEXT 
 
SCHIEFFER